Operation Blackrock
by Wizard Of
Summary: The Schnee Dust Company perform Operation Blackrock and the poor sap who gets into it manages to become a Hunter, and so much more. (M to be safe, to not break rules with excessive violence.)
1. Kill the Operation

**Author Notes. This is my first Fanfiction, basically, it is if my character, (there are references, pretty heavy ones too,) and a couple others (for a whole team) was inserted into RWBY about the same time as Sun, the first part is some back story, and then the story really happens. so i hope you enjoy, and i hope someone catches the references, also, do not expect frequent updates, I write when I can and when I feel like it.**

 **Enjoy!**

Joakim Hellstrand was just a normal person, living in Mistral on a farm with his family, until some people with white hair, blue eyes and very **VERY** formal attire arrived at his family's farm, he was taken away and the next thing he knew he was on the ground in front of a pod in a strange lab, he knew from a combination of the Snowflake emblem on the wall and the color scheme of the place (completely white, hints of blue, no other colors)

He knew who took him from his-

 **His** family, he didn't know how long these people had taken him for, he felt like it was minutes but he knew it had to have been more, _what did they do to them? Are they okay? Zoeya… Teep…_ He proceeded to look around this facility, it was Atlas tech, atlas everything, _Schnee dust company took me away, did god knows what, and now I may never know how my family is…_ he signed a contract of his own split-second design, he would have revenge. But first, he finally noticed there was no-one there, he noticed most lights were red, like either an alarm or back up power lights, the only reason he knew most of these things was the few books the Hellstrands had, he realized something terrible must have happened, he tried to stand up and walk out the door, after "borrowing" a uniform, when he reached the door he realized part of what Atlas had done, _wha- why do I have a bone plate like those… those creatures… Greg? Geoff? Gri- Grimm, that's it, why do I have two bone plates where my mouth used to be…_ he said to himself, not realizing fully what this meant, as he had not ever fully understood what the Grimm were, he opened his mouth, the reflection did the same, he knew it was true, so he proceeded out of the door, but almost as soon as he touched the handle he realized, what should normally had been about as loud as a feather landing on a pillow, he heard almost as loud as a rabid wolf would be. Shaken for a while, minutes, more minutes, he tried again, bracing for the sound, and focusing on not hearing anything, and when he touched the door, it was fine, so he turned the handle lightly, to try to not make noise, and the doorknob twisted and when it would normally had stopped and allowed the door to swing open, it came off in a crashing sound, when Joakim realized what had happened, he chalked it up to the fact he was now part Grimm, and pushed the door open, and he saw no-one and decided, _If no one is here, then I'm sure they won't mind me checking out the notes they have…_ and he checked files after files after files,

 **Day 3 Operation Black Rock, we have the subject back at base, family was sad to see him go, and we couldn't have any loose ends… I still need to clean my suit…**...

 **Day 5, we now have started the true tests, not sure what to expect, other than long sleepless nights observing the subject…**

 **Day 10, signs seen are what we hypothesized, results average, except this subject seems to still be in good health…...**

Joakim scanned through the files, he learned of some of his new "Abilities" and after skipping a good bunch of files, he saw it.

 **Day 572, Operation Grimm Crossing,**

He didn't care what good Atlas had done, he didn't care about the rest of the files, about anything else,

 _572 days, that's a bit over a year isn't it…_

He found a small stash of Lien, and proceeded to find his way to the exit, after a stop at the armory to pick up the first weapon he found, he practiced with it, tested all the buttons, he found the dagger mode of this weapon was his most favorite, as it was weighted almost exactly like that branch back in Mistral…

He also found some rings, 5, Blue, Amber, Red, Red again, and Yellow, he felt the red ones were warm, the blue one was cold, yellow was kind of hot actually, and amber was warm as well, so he guessed that they must be infused with Dust, after a while of practicing, _I think I could take on some robbers or some gang if some decided to rob me…_

being the humorless person he tended to be, he decided if anyone asked, his weapons were Katar (influenced by one of his favorite board games as a kid,) and Barry,

after practicing with and naming his new weapons, he found he was actually hungry, so he decided to head to the cafeteria of this facility, which wasn't hard to find with his enhanced smell, (which he learned about when reading through the files)

after a while, when he realized he was in the back kitchen eating the raw meat instead of whatever had been left behind in the front counter, he remembered part of what the Grimm were- are. So he tore a bit of some poor guy named Duncan's personal suit, and then used it as a purple mask to hide the bone-jaw he had, deciding if anyone saw a human with a Grimm-like bone plate, they would not be very happy.

So with his new disguise, and his stomach full Joakim set off to the exit of this facility, which he had found by following the scent/feel of crisp cool air, found a local town, realized that who Atlas was they probably "removed" Joakim from existence, as well as all the Hellstrands, so he thought, _Who am I now, I need a new name… Rythian, I Am Rythian._

With those thoughts, he head into town, and managed to sneak on a ship that had made a stop from Vacuo, after on board he found out it was heading to Vale, Joa-

Rythian had always dreamed of heading to Vale, to become a warrior at Beacon, but it was all a dream, but now it could become a reality, at least with the help of Katar and Barry, and a new "acquaintance" he made on the ship, halfway through the trip from Atlas to Vale, he found out (through vigorous chatting, almost as hard to get information out of this new friend as it was to get over the fact his family was gone)

That the other person was a Faunus, and had come from Vacuo, about to head into port Rythian managed to get the Faunus' name, he was a blonde monkey Faunus named 'Sun'

Maybe Rythian could get away with saying he was Rythian, as it doesn't really seem to be that weird a name.

So Rythian got off the ship after Sun, (partially so Sun could drag the police away, partially because his legs were sore from sitting on the ground that whole journey.)

And saw a poster for the "Vytal Festival"

 _Maybe I could sneak my way onto a team… worst case scenario I need to run, change my look, possibly my weapons, and think of a new Code-name…_

Rythian was standing there, he knew no one, except Sun, who seemed like a cool guy, he was a stowaway as well, so there was that.

 _Ugh, I'm still wearing this stupid SDC uniform, I've got to find something, I do have quite a bit of Lien… thanks Duncan…_

So Rythian decided on getting some clothes to fit in more, he bought a thin large scarf to hide his Grimm-features, that doubled as a sort of dual-cloak, which he always kind of wanted as a kid, so he wasn't hiding using a torn piece of a suit, _Purple, a nice color, mysterious, strange, not seen too much… just like me._

Also some general-dark color clothes, mostly black with more hints of purple in certain places, _The less people see me the less people want to see what's behind the mask…_

He now thought. _What do I do… I think I'll find some alley to train in, and then when I feel stronger I'll see if I can find Sun or something, and probably ask about whatever this 'Vytal festival' is.…_

So, he trained, and trained, some cardboard boxes were destroyed in various ways, sliced, stabbed, smashed, shot, burnt, frozen, almost anything under the sun happened to those boxes.

And then He came, you know who I'm talking about, Rythian doesn't, but You do.

Red hair, nice bowler hat, a cane with a white handle, red bottom, despite obviously not needing one,

a white coat red on the inside, over a black shirt with a grey ribbon around his neck, and a couple of goons with red sunglasses and swords,

 _Oh dear, well it seems I either die or win, so that's a thing._

"Look what we have here, another kid thinking they can become a warrior, tell me, do you know Red by any chance?" said Bowler Hat Guy, in a way that sounded sarcastic, except for the last part.

 _Okay, I don't know red, but I think that may end in a fight, so this is gonna be a fight anyways…_

"I don't know anyone by that name, just leave me alone"

 _Okay… I think I better start reaching for Katar…_

"Well, if you want to be a warrior, now's your chance to prove to yourself you can be." Said the man with the hat, raising his cane pointing it straight at Rythian's head.

 _Okay, there's no reason he would be doing that if it was just a cane, it has to be a weapon._

Rythian rolled to the left, not even turning around yet, as he didn't need to, while unsheathing Katar as soon as he heard a click, it was the sights opening on the weapon, and firing, he narrowly dodged it, but it burnt a hole through his double-cloak, which looked strangely like a pair of eyes, he kind of liked it. And a dumpster was exploded in the background, which would have actually stunned Rythian for a while, if he wasn't expecting a loud sound and shutting off his enhanced hearing.

Grabbed one of the goon's sword, made him do a flip, tossed the sword roughly at the man with the cane, not really intending to hit, and now had a human shield. Used BARRY to freeze the other goon to the floor, now his only real opponent was the man with the hat.

"I'm impressed, you're doing quite well, but I'm afraid to say that this is the end of the line."

Rythian pushed the goon-shield to the walls of the alley, the man unconscious he now threw him at the bowler hat guy, and knocked Melodic Cudgel out of his hands, as the man was actually expecting a more specific attack, rather than a man clumsily stumbling into him.

Walk over, kick Melodic Cudgel away, and a swift boot to the ear was the last thing Roman felt before going unconscious, waking up to the one goon still unconscious to his side and the other one still frozen, with no sign of permanent damage, and no sign of the kid, he sighed, thinking, _That's twice now, first Red and now this kid._

"You were worth every penny, truly you were…" He said very sarcastically as he proceeded to free/wake up the goons,

"We still have a to hit that shop near the port, and I am not very pleased with your services, and I paid good money for your swords, you better step it up." The man said while attempting to straighten out Melodic Cudgel, his cane-gun.

"Ugh, this isn't gonna buff out this time, maybe with some Headlight Fluid…" pulling out a scroll to call someone.

 _Pat pat pat pat pat_

Footsteps, someone was still there watching Roman and ran off.

 _Huh, I better warn that shop,_ Rythian thought as he ran away, after finding out this information he could save a person's business, or life,

"Wow, that wasn't in the files, that's very useful…" He whispered to himself.

* * *

"This is the place, let's go." Roman said, as him and his crew entered the shop, surprised as every customer in the shop drew weapons and flashed badges, and they realized every customer was wearing a uniform. _How could I have not seen them.._.

"Woah woah woah, let's not do anything we might regret." Roman said as he kneeled with his hands on his head, subtly trying to line up a shot on a couple of the police, including one who was in a suit, instead of the typical uniform.

Everyone in the shop was distracted for a second, as a voice rang out from the corner, where a small shimmer was seen, but no person.

"His cane is a rocket launcher, move."

Roman mind raced, _Man, 2 times bested by a kid, 3 if you count what happened with Red… I'm not going to jail again;_ _ **they**_ _won't be very happy._

Roman motioned to the goons, they charged the police, swinging their red swords frantically hoping to not get shot, all the while Roman just ran, thinking, _well, at least I know who to not get in the way of… Oum damn it I'm scared of a kid playing hero._

From the corner where the voice came, Rythian reappeared, took a moment to check if the police were using lethal or non-lethal force, he didn't want to be in more trouble than he was right now.

They were using live rounds, but the goons must have had some sort of under-armor.

He hurled a fireball at one of the goons, burning away the suit and revealing to the police that they had armor, however no arm armor, as well as taking down the goon who was soon screaming in agony, at least until Rythian was fed up and kicked his head in, while the police turned and took down the other goon.

After the police officer with the suit made a quick scroll call, he turned to the masked person who had helped take down the goons, and warned them about Melodic Cudgel.

"Who are you?" she asked,

"Short answer or Long answer?"

"Short"

"My name is Rythian."

"Last name?"

"Hey, you wanted the short answer." Rythian said, Sun's influence slightly showing, not that the officer picked up on it.

"Okay then, long answer."

"Well, of all people to tell…"

And he has told his story up to this point, excluding his real name of course, and the fact he met Sun, unless he was asked specifically, which he wasn't.

"I find the fact the Schnee Dust Company trying to fuse human and Grimm hard to believe."

"Well, either you believe or you don't, but it's true." Rythian said, slightly perturbed.

And he took his mask off for the first time since he had changed from the Scrap mask.

"Y- You... you… you monster!" The officer had somehow managed to stutter through saying this, despite obviously fearing for her life, _This kid is a Grimm hybrid, a monster, oh Monty, Uncle Andrew, I won't fall like you did! I will have my revenge! okay, slow your breathing, hyperventilating won't help you now._ And she pulled her weapon on Rythian. He disappeared, leaving the obviously higher-ranked police officer confused, and shooting at nothing.

"I won't attack you, I don't have anywhere to go, I thought a woman that was a member of the Vale police department would understand, but I guess I was wrong, I hope I don't have to fight you in the future, sorry for overestimating you."

 _Pat pat pat pat pat_

And the Officer was alone again, not sure what to do at all, fearful the Grimm-person was still nearby.


	2. Kill the JASR

**Hello, Author notes again, the only reason this is uploaded so close to the last part is because I have already written a few chapters, so, hope you enjoy, and remember to put recommendations for anything in reviews.**

"I won't attack you, I don't have anywhere to go, I thought a woman that was a member of the Vale police department would understand, but I guess I was wrong, I hope I don't have to fight you in the future, sorry for overestimating you."

 _Pat pat pat pat pat_

And Rythian ran, he didn't want to go to jail in his not-so-new "situation" he went to try to find Sun, the only person he knows and didn't try to kill him, at least not yet.

Apart from the Shop keep who ran Dust Till Dawn, which is a dust shop/clothes shop Rythian had shopped at earlier today.

Walking through the streets… ducking out of the way of police officers, as he had assumed he was now wanted, seeing a couple of people dressed up just like the Goons he had fought… yesterday? Yeah, yesterday, it was hard to tell because Vale was lit up even at night time.

The goons were harassing an elderly shop keep, _That's the guy who sold me my mask and clothes, I should probably help, but I probably shouldn't kill them, despite the fact they deserve it, if I kill them the police would DEFINITELY be on my tail…_

"Leave that shop keep alone." I said

"Oh, and what are you going to do? Call the cops?"

"No, I won't, but if you don't stop there will be blood."

"Hah, you think you can fight us… let's see if you can even fig- "

He finally turned around, and the other goon turned after hearing his partner stop talking suddenly, they were both stunned, Roman must have warned the rest of his crew…

"Boo."

They ran, scared for their lives, _Roman DEFINITELY told them._

"Are you okay Sir.?"

"mhmm."

"Do you need anything?"

He shook his head,

"Well, I'll be on my way then, if you're fine."

I turned around, stared walking, and was stopped by a surprisingly strong grip on my arm, I turned back around, to see the shop keep holding some lien in his other hand.

"Sir. I can't take your money; you need it more than I do."

He pressed the lien into my hand, and didn't say a word.

"I think I know what happened, did you owe those guys money?"

"mhmm."

"Is this the money you owed them?"

"mhmm."

 _I can't take this old man's money, but he won't let me leave without paying me…_

I grabbed the money, started counting. _Wow, running a dust/clothing shop must be a lucrative business, no wonder those goons were pressuring him for money._

I guessed how much was about half, pretty easy once I related it to dividing chicken feed between the chickens… I never was one for numbers.

I took one half in my hand, the slightly smaller stack, and offered him the rest.

"Here, I told you already, **I can't take your money**. I need to be on my way."

He took the smaller stack out of my hand, and started walking back into the shop we were in front of, presumably to open again or to deal with the aftermath of whatever those goons did before I got here.

I found a small pebble, put some of the lien he gave me under it, and placed it near the door.

 _I don't need the lien, he does._

And I was on my way, decided to stop by a butcher shop,

"Look, I know this may be a strange request, but how much is 3 large servings of steak, unwrapped?"

"Uhh, about 50, give or take the specific weights."

"Here's 60, and don't throw away the trimmings."

"Sure thing sir."

And I was on my way once again, stopping by an alley just outside the shop to eat without drawing any attention, and wiping the mess on the inside of the mask-scarf, no one is going to see that side anyways.

And off I went, trying to find Sun once again.

' _Rythian, more hero than Vales Finest will ever be.'_ Joakim shook his head,

 _Hah, as if they would ever accommodate me on anything, it's worse for me than it was for the Faunus some years ago… at least from what I have read._

Speaking of Faunus, I had stumbled across a blonde monkey Faunus sitting at a table with someone else, who wore mostly dark colors with a pair of ears on her head, wait, upon closer inspection, it was just a bow.

 _There's Sun, I need to talk to him, but… He seems to be doing well, they are both smiling, I don't want to get in the way, I don't need any more enemies._

I stood outside the restaurant door than owned the small balcony Sun was on, and waited for Sun to leave, after a while, he did. _Actually, in hindsight, actually surprised he didn't just hop the railing of the balcony, considering the stunt he pulled when he got off the boat, he is part monkey after all._

"Oh hey Rythian, didn't think I would see you again so soon dude!" Sun said, legitimately suprised

"Hello, I kind of need to talk…"

"Sure, talk."

"Well, I have nowhere to go, and I saw a poster for this "Vytal Festival" and saw there would be a tournament where "Students from all main schools in the four kingdoms, including beacon" would fight, do you have any info?"

"Well, it's a celebration, and the students are all kids training to become hunters/huntresses, no one else. I am training, its just there was an odd number of students, and I don't have a team- "

"Really? I wish I went to combat school now…"  
"Wait, you mean you solved 3 'Situations' without going to combat school!?"

"Dude Dude, be quiet, I was wondering, is there a way to get onto one of the teams that will be in the tournament… wait, how did you know about that?"  
"Didn't you see me? I was on the roof eating a banana, and then I threw the peel off the roof- "  
"That's where that came from…" I said, in realization.

"So, about the whole, sneaking into a team thing, I suppose we could, but we would have to find 3 people willing to sneak in, because all teams are full of all 4 people, we need to make a team name from everyone's initials, so you would be R, hmm… the headmasters of all the schools tend to theme the team names, Colors, Gems, general things…

JASPER!" Sun said, as if he had just discovered the secret to immortality.

"What?"

"Jasper, that would be your team name, you know, the gem."  
"but that's six letters, not 4."

"You numbskull, J-A-S-R," Sun said, slightly sarcastically. "it's perfect, while it's a bit of a stretch, due to there not being a P, all the team names these past years are a bit of a stretch to what they are 'representing' though, so it should be fine."

"Jasper, interesting, do you know anyone who is J, A, or S?"

"Yeah, I know them, but I'll need some time to contact them."

"Will it be in time to enter the tournament?"  
"Definitely Rythian, Definitely, for now, go to the 'for rent' house near the park directly west of the port, the owners are pretty nice, and it's an amazing deal, dirt cheap, although you are kind of just paying for dirt, I can help you fix it up, and they have a thing where they won't raise the rent because the property is now 'more valuable', at least if you put the work in."

"You sound like you have experience."  
"I do, I rent from them as well."

"Oh, cool. Well you're the only person I know in Vale, so I guess I'll head over there and check it out, I have nothing else to do." I said, legitimately happy to find a place I might be able to rest at.

"Okay Rythian, stop by the house on your house's left once you have the deal signed and everything, that's my house, well. 'my' house, I am renting after all." Sun said, I think he was expecting a response to the 'joke' he had made.

"Okay, sure will. See you later."

"See you."

And we parted ways again, Sun walked away first, rendezvousing with the person he was eating with previously, who I hadn't noticed was waiting this whole time. And I walked away, hoping to find the house with the owners nearby, so I could start renting and sleep this night.


	3. Kill the Team

**Wizard Of here, this may be the last chapter for a while, because this is the last chapter I have pre-written.**

 **Also, (shameless plug incoming!) Youtube channel, same name, gaming channel, just starting.**

 **Now that that is out of the way, enjoy the story.**

And we parted ways again, Sun walked away first, rendezvousing with the person he was eating with previously, who I hadn't noticed was waiting this whole time. And I walked away, hoping to find the house with the owners nearby, so I could start renting and sleep this night…

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEP

…

…...  
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEP

"Ughh, stupid alarm… well, I guess it's morning, better turn off the stupid alarm, DEFINITELY more annoying than a chicken…"

I got up, and grabbed some extra meat out of the fridge I had and ate.

"What now what now what now…. Oh yeah, probably should meet up with Sun, see if I should start training more…"

Walking out of the door I realize the house to my left is actually quite a 'Fancy' house, at least if it were in Mistral it would be, and the top window had just been opened, revealing a blonde haired monkey Faunus leaping out of it, to land in a three-point-pose and throwing a banana peel into a nearby bin.

"Hey Sun! Any progress on getting the team together?"

"Hey Rythian, liking the house? It had mahogany doors. And yeah, I got the team together, well, we've spoken, and they are waiting to meet up, you ready to meet them? You seem to be."

Slightly wondering how he had managed to make contact with them, and why he specifically mentioned mahogany doors.

"Uhh, sure, just lead the way, I could go for a run, so don't slow down for me."

"Okay, you said so." He said, as he proceeded to sprint down a road, nimbly dodging anyone in the way, even if it was last-second.

And I ran, I ran so far away, not entirely calibrated with my speed, at least after a rest, I sprinted and caught up with Sun almost instantly, and almost caused him to crash into a cabbage stand, just before jumping and running along the canvas covering.

"Huh, your fast, you sure you aren't trained?"

Still running, well, with my newfound speed it felt more like jogging than anything else,

"Nope, not one day, at least not any more than chasing one of my brothers after he took one of the few books I had as a kid." I said, revealing a bit more than comfortable with.

Sun continued, with a smirk on his face. "Cool, however in the future I'm definitely going to have to ask more about your past."

"I'm not sure there's much to really say about it." I replied.

"You sound like there is a lot more than you let on, I can hear it in your voice."

Well, he clearly is skilled in reading body language and things like that.

"So, are those the team members ahead?" I asked, honestly not sure.

"Nope, just a right turn where that club is and to the end of the road." He replied, he clearly knows this place well, surprising he is not from here.

"Okay, see you there." I said, breaking into a full sprint after engaging my invisibility.

He stopped for a second "Wait, where did you go?"

Silence.

"Well, better keep going, he probably just sped up a bit." Sun mumbled to himself,

"So, hello Janik, hello Aloi, seen anyone come by lately? I think R may have gotten lost on the way here."

"Nope," the Fox Faunus who had a typical black-slack pants with a light brown hooded shirt-vest, with holes for his Faunus features, and a bow on his back, had said in an accent. "No one has come by in at least an hour."

"I haven't seen anyone either Sun." Said the Tanned woman with the typical Combat-Skirt and red hair, quietly, as if focusing on something else at the moment, probably from Vacuo, if I were to guess.

Disengaging my invisibility, "R, huh? Already with the nicknames…" I said, little sarcastic.

Everyone stepped away from me, not to blame them, if a mysterious dark figure appeared behind me leaning up against a wall despite not being seen moving there, I probably would have jumped too.

Sun was the first to break the silence, "Huh, invisibility too Rythian, I wonder what else you have up your sleeves… and yes, this is R."

This seemed to calm Janik and Aloi, whichever one is which.

The accented voice spoke again, "Wow, I've never seen someone who could go invisible, I assume you are the friend Sun was speaking about?"

And the woman just watched me intently, obviously trying to 'study' me.

Sun spoke again. "Yes Janik, this is Rythian, and Aloi, you're probably making him nervous, I haven't told him about your semblance yet."

Once more, Janik, the fox Faunus spoke. "Well then, Hello Rythian, I am Janik, this is Aloi," he said, motioning to the woman who had averted her gaze to somewhere else, no maybe nothing in particular.

"And since you are Rythian, we will be your team mates." He continued, extending his hand.

I waited a moment, wondering if he would say more, before accepting the handshake. "Well, nice to meet you Janik, I am indeed Rythian." I finished, before extending my hand to Aloi, "Nice to meet you too Aloi." I said, with no reply, except Janik shortly after the awkward exchange, or lack of one to be honest. "Aloi doesn't really talk much, or do anything much, or make friends much, ghhh!" He said, growing slightly quieter along his speech, before earning an elbow to the stomach by Aloi.

"Hey, it's not my fault you refuse to speak to pretty much anyone!" Janik retorted, before earning another elbow to the stomach.

"Okay, fine. But he will be our teammate for four years, you have to open up a bit at some point…" Janik said again, followed by a sign of relief there was no Elbow-based reply, which was then followed by a swift elbow to the stomach.

"Okay, I'll stop talking."

Silence.

And Sun broke the silence again, although still quiet, "Okay, I have the faked transcripts for you all ready, I've already done it once, it's just easier the second, third, and fourth times…"

"Wait, who is the S?" I said,

"Why, you're looking at him R.!" Sun replied.

"Should have seen that coming, so… you get those transcripts in, while I go get something to eat, I'm starving."

Janik joined in, possibly due to the light tug Aloi did on his sleeve. "Well, me and Aloi are also hungry, so I think we'll join you, it will also help us learn a bit about each other."

"Soo, you know any places who serve meat? I'm a bit of a Carnivore." I said, hoping to not reveal my secret by exploding the box it was hiding in with giant fireworks.

"Okay, I think I know a couple places." Janik said.

"Good, let's go." I replied, my stomach grumbling quite loud, presumably due to my Grimm-ness,

So, we made conversation on the way to the shop, mostly trading how we all fight, I discovered that Janik uses a bow he calls Horizon, 'Because I can hit any target that isn't over the horizon.' He said, and that his semblance was basically enhanced reactions, not like fast movement or anything, just he can react to things the exact moment they happen. And I had learned that Aloi fights with a very light sword and shield, light enough to weigh pretty much nothing, that were made of some mostly clear material, which made it so her attacks would almost never miss the exact mark they were aiming for, unless the person had good eyesight AND fast reactions.

However I did not learn Aloi's semblance, although it turns out that Janik and Aloi were orphaned in Vacuo, forced to do anything they needed to in order to get by, which in turn allowed them to create _certain skills_ that most would consider thief and con-artist's work. Luckily I was able to keep my secret while eating by getting it to-go, and slipping into an alley, when I was sure they would not turn around and notice me missing, to eat the 'Medium Raw' meat I had ordered, we met at the landing pad for Bullheads where sun had told us to meet him, to get a ride to THE Beacon Academy, while we would have to work quite hard to catch up, as we were joining later into the year, it would all be worth it.

* * *

The view was amazing on the Bullhead ride to Beacon, you could see Forever Fall forest, a bit of the sea, some plains of some kind, a bit of normal forest, with some broken-down ruins, and the cliff that you would be sent off in Initiation, and then a hologram appeared on the windows, of a woman with almost-white blonde hair, glasses, green eyes, and a 'I'm serious and if you mess with me I will throw you off a cliff.' Expression on her face,

Janik said, "That must be G- "

He was cut off by the hologram speaking. "Hello and welcome to Beacon Academy. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who had received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy despite joining late in the year!" Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect out world."

Janik continued, "Yup, that is Goodwitch."

And then the Bullhead came to a stop as we landed, and we all quickly realized the grubby windows did the Academy no justice. We were all in awe before Goodwitch and a grey-haired man approached, the grey haired man was wearing a black suit, with a green scarf with a pin around his neck, small glasses, and a cane with patterns so innate it couldn't just be a cane, it must be a weapon, the trigger near the handle of the cane also was a pretty sure sign it was a weapon.

We all immediately knew it was Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon.

Ozpin was the first to speak, "Normally, you would be summoned to attend a speech, given by me, but I feel as this is just four people, the speech is unnecessary, you will immediately perform Initiation, but as the usual team-sorting method won't do anything, as you are only four people, your task will to be find the ruins and, as a team, bring back the single artifact, you will meet opposition, you will face Grimm, you will fight, or you will die. Now, follow me to the cliffs, where we will explain more about how things will happen as you have joined mid-year."

"Okay Mr…" Sun said,

"Ozpin, just call me Ozpin, or Headmaster if you like."

"Okay Ozpin." 'Team JASR' said almost in sync.

* * *

And then we found ourselves on a cliff, on some metal pads, overlooking the normal-looking forest which apparently was called the Emerald Forest,

"You will be falling, and you will need to land using your landing strategy, be prepared for anything, and work as a team."

And a few seconds after he finished talking, Janik was launched into the air with an audible "WHOOOO!", followed by Aloi launching, then Sun launched, with a flip to show off, and finally, I was launched.

After nearly hitting a very small nevermore, I engaged my 'Landing Strategy' which consisted of wrapping Katar around a tree, and then slowing down until I could brace the rest of the fall, to be met be Janik and Aloi. With the sound of Sun somewhere nearby, "Nailed it." And then finding his way to meet up with me, Janik, and Aloi.

Sun was the first to speak, as expected, "Anyone see the ruins?"

"I think they are that way." Janik replied.

"Okay then, lets head that way." I said.

The trip to the Ruins went well, no Grimm.

"So, that's the artifact, right?" I said.

"Yeah, I think it is." Sun replied,

"It definitely seems that way, are there any other glowing objects in these ruins?" Janik said,

"I see your point." I said, picking up the small roughly sword-shaped rock, and putting it in my pouch.

"Grimm incoming." Aloi said, the first time she talked that wasn't practically whispering.

"Deathstalker, how are we going to take that down?" I said, suppressing my fear.

"Easy, cut just above the stinger, it kills itself after that." Janik said.

"Okay, go team!" Sun shouted, while jumping off of the ruins, and transforming his weapons into nun-chuck-shotguns, and charging the Deathstalker.

"Janik, stay here, shoot it in the eye, full power on my mark, while I go and cut the stinger, Aloi, distract it while I move in, same goes for you Sun!" I said, transforming Katar into Dagger mode, and leaping from the ruined podium, while Janik pulled out Horizon and took aim, Aloi mumbling something and suddenly appearing a good while in front of me. I think we are going to do just fine.

I rush the Deathstalker while Aloi causes her aura to make bright lights distracting the Deathstalker, while Sun was firing his Shotgun-Nun-chucks roughly at the Deathstalker.

"NOW!" I shouted, so that Janik would fire, immediately followed by a shot ringing out, and the Deathstalker lowering all defenses, shrieking in pain.

Taking advantage of the moment, I rushed full speed at the Deathstalker, jumping and cutting at the top of the stinger, but I missed. Landing on the other side with a roll, turning quickly to expect the Deathstalker still there.

But it wasn't, the whole tail had been cut off, rather than just the stinger, followed by the Deathstalker collapsing to the ground, and then starting to dissolve.

"So, let's head back to the cliff, we have the Artifact anyways." Sun said,

"That sounds like a good idea, almost as good as R's plan back there, Good Job by the way." Aloi said, probably the most words she has said since I met her.

"Thanks, but we really should head back quickly." I replied,

"Yup, race you guys there?" Sun suggested,

"Sure" Janik said,

"Okay." Aloi said.

"You know what happened last time we raced, right?" I said.

"Yeah, but now there are trees. Three... two... onego!"

Of course he would do that…. What was I expecting. Time to run.


	4. Kill the Gamer

_**Author notes, been a bit since the last one, but while I had this planned out a bit, it still took a while to write it, this whole chapter (and some of future chapters) is heavily inspired by the story " The Gamer Girl" by ThePhantomScribe, so go check that out, it's awesome. Basically Blake gets the semblance of being a videogame character, I tweaked a few things because this is from Rythian's POV, not The Gamer's which makes it hard to portray the things I want to, so that aside, Enjoy the chapter!**_

Of course he would do that…. What was I expecting. Time to run.

Running,

Running,

Running,

Not sure how far I've ran already, I should be getting close to the cliff now,

I could not be more right, I came into a small clearing just before the cliff, and almost smacked face first into the cliff, good thing I came first, time to set up my "image"

Then Aloi came through, you would say she was just repeatedly teleporting, but you could still tell she was "running" by some sense of the word, to be met with the sight of a bunch of dead Ursai, decent size ones too. And me just leaning on the cliff calmly, a million things must have ran through her head while this sunk in, and then she walked over to me, it was rare for her to walk towards anybody, but it even seemed like she wanted to talk, and that was even rarer.

She gave a quick look around, and then started the conversation after also leaning on the cliff like I was.

"I know your secret, but if you want me to I won't tell anyone."

"uh, whisper my secret to me, that usual 'I'll just say I know your secret so you'll try to confirm which secret by telling me your secret and then I never really knew your secret and it was all just a ruse.' Thing won't work on me Aloi."

She edged closer to me, before whispering,  
"I know what you hide behind that mask, I know it is also how you are so powerful without training, I know why you don't want to tell anyone about it. And I know you're not entirely human."

"Okay, yes, it's probably what you think it is, do I have to worry about other people finding out on their own?"

"No, I'm just overly observant, anyone else it just looks like you wear a mask because you can." She said, with a tone of voice that almost made it sound like she was boasting, but that she wasn't trying to boast, it was weird.

"Okay, so do you have a secret I should know about? We are teammates after all, and you know my secret."

"Okay, Janik said pretty much every aspect about me except for one thing, what my semblance is."

"Yeah."

"My semblance is weird, it's the only way to explain it. Did you ever notice how the way I fight, how I mumble words when I fight? that is my semblance. The only way I can explain it, do you know the typical RPG game?"

"Uhh, sure, at my home we had one game console and one game, I think it was like 'Sky Center' or something."

"Yes, Sky Center is an RPG game. You know how you usually play the 'main character' who is the hero and has to save the princess or save the world or avenge their parents or whatever McGuffin people can think of?"

"Yeah."

"Well, think about it this way, my semblance makes this whole world a 'Game' and I am the main character, not like I'm playing the main character, I **am** the main character."

"uhh, that's cool." I said, not entirely sure why this was such a secret.

"This was not the reaction I was expecting; people usually think I'm lying or joke around."

"Well, from what Janik said, he is the liar, and you are the pickpocket and breaking and entering person."

"Think about that first part of the sentence again."

"Okay, from what Janik said, he is the liar," I mumbled under my breath, "I don't see what's wrong with it."

"Flip it."

"okay, from what the liar said, he is the liar." I mumbled, "OHHH, okay, I get it."

"Good, but why are you so accepting of my strange semblance?"

"Because you are accepting of my secret."

"That makes sense, do you want to make a party?"

"What?"

"Gaming terms, do you want to group up, it allows us to share EXP and level up faster."

"Uhh, sure."

"Create party." She said, very clear and clean cut." J-A" she said, once again very clean cut, "Invite to party."

And then for a moment I was scared for the first time in a long time, a blue window appeared in my vision, with the words _Aloi Ravier has invited you to 'J-A', do you accept? (Y) (N)_

She apparently noticed my fear, "Click the Y button, this also allows you to kind of 'share' my semblance, as we are in a party."

After a few moments of hesitation, I tapped the (Y) button with my finger.

 _ **DING**_

And then nothing seemed to happen, except there were 2 horizontal bars on the right side of the screen, with a black eye logo with a purple background on one, and a sort of controller on the other one. As well as seeing another holographic window above Aloi,

 **Aloi Ravier The Gamer**

 **Level 25**

"Woah, what level am I Aloi?"

She stared for a moment into nothingness, as she usually does, but this time she stopped after a moment, "You are at least 35."

"How do you know it's more than 35 if you don't know what the specific level is?"

"I know because anything 11 or more levels higher than you is a question mark, although if we find a mirror you can see your own level."

"Cool."

"AND DON'T DO ANYTHING WITH THE WINDOWS WITH ANYONE AROUND!" she snapped, louder than I ever thought she could.

"Okay, and don't take off my mask with anyone around."

"The way you worded that sounds like if there is no one else around you are okay with taking off the mask."

"I am, because I'm afraid of people knowing what I am, not what I look like, but you already know anyways."

She took a moment to turn to look around, repeatedly saying "Observe." In the same clean cut voice that she uses when doing anything else with the Gamer Semblance or whatever you want to call it.

"We are alone, Sun probably got side tracked with some banana tree or something, and dragged Janik with him."

"So, are you sure you want to see it?"

"If you are okay with it. Yes, I do."

And then I removed my mask, the second time I have done it with any people nearby, to reveal the Bone Plate jaws I have, and I braced to expect a reaction like the Police Officer had, but it never came.

"So, are you okay with this? Everyone else would probably have either already ran all the way to mistral or tried to kill me."

"It's awesome." She started talking, and Awesome definitely isn't a word I expected her to be fond of. "Although I can easily see why you want to hide it, I imagine most people wouldn't take kindly to a Grimm right in front of them, even if it is a person."

"Okay, so, since we are still waiting for Sun and Janik. You mentioned that by joining a party with you we 'share' your semblance, so is there anything I can do with it?"

"Well, as you probably already deduced, most skills are voice activated, because I can't exactly carry around a controller with me. So try opening some windows, maybe Status Window." She focused when she said status window, not sure why.

"Okay then, why did you look so focused when you said Status Windo- OHHHHH. You were focusing so that saying it wouldn't open the window."

"Yes I was, so look around the window, see what you see."

"Okay."

 **Name: Joakim Hellstrand**

 **Class: Grimm-Born**

 **Level: 45** _ **(Nxt lvl: 42%)**_

…

 **HP: 2000/2000**

 **MP: 1000/1000**

…

 **STR: - 15 +**

 **VIT: - 15 +**

 **DEX: - 20 +**

 **INT: - 10+**

 **WIS: - 10 +**

 **LUC: - 7 +**

…

 **Point: 193**

 **Money: 480,000 Lien**

"So, what do you see?"

"I see my name, my 'Class', my level, my HP and MP levels, and the typical stats, as well as a point counter and a money counter."

"Grimm-Born, it's pretty catchy."

"Wait, how do you know exactly how it is worded?"

"Look at me and say Observe." She focused when she said Observe, so that she would not actually observe.

"Observe."

 **Name: Aloi Ravier**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Level: 25**

 **Rank: S**

…

 **HP: 100/100**

 **MP: 50000/50000**

…

 **STR: 10**

 **VIT: 15**

 **DEX: 100**

 **INT: 65**

 **WIS:35**

 **LUK: N/A**

…

 **Emotions: Relief. Wonderment. Awe.**

"Okay, so you can see the same window when you say it?"

"Yes, I do. Another important window is the Skill List. And don't forget to put skill points in when you level up."

"Okay, I should probably do that right now, Status Window."

 **Name: Joakim Hellstrand**

 **Class: Grimm-Born**

 **Level: 42** _ **(Nxt Lvl 42%)**_

 **...**

 **HP: 3000/3000**

 **MP: 2000/2000**

…

 **STR: 30**

 **VIT: 35**

 **DEX: 60**

 **INT: 20**

 **WIS: 25**

 **LUC: 100**

…

 **Point: 0**

 **Money: 480,000 Lien**

"There we go, stats are all set."

"Observe." Aloi said, and then a brief pause. "Seriously, 100 luck?"

"Luck is always the thing people overlook, they think either they do STR VIT DEX for a melee fighter, or INT and WIS and maybe a little VIT for a ranged thing, no one ever looks at luck. Yet luck does everything from behind the scenes."

"Interesting way of thinking."

"Besides, it's still all better than how it was before, and I can already fight the Grimm easily, so that means I can still level up and even out my stats, Luck also means that if this does have a sort of Drop system, I will get like all of the drops, and they will be amazing."

"This does have a Drop system, and a CRIT system, and a lot of other things that probably depend on luck."

"See? Now almost every hit will be a critical, I will get all of the drops, and I will be 'better' at all those other things."

"Okay then, but remember, no mentioning this to anyone, not even Sun and Janik."

"Will do. Or won't do, whatever the right words are. I will not mention this to anyone."

"Okay, now Sun and Janik are coming."

"How do you know?"

"Look behind you."

I turned and there it was, a banana peel, and soon there was another, and then I looked up and there was another one flying through the air, only to hit its target. My face.

"Ugh, let's start climbing, they will catch up." Aloi said.

"Okay then, let's go."

And then immediately Aloi put about 5 feet between us, and immediately started staring into nothing like normal, and then started climbing the stairs, and then just as Sun and Janik ran to the bottom of the stairs, I heard Aloi shout. "Rythian made it here first so you know."

Yes I did, Yes I did. "Skill list" I whispered.


	5. Kill the Greetings

**A/N. Hello, this is another chapter that explains The Gamer semblance a bit more for people who haven't read the other story I got the inspiration/format from (go do that by the way, it's awesome). As well as some introductions and things like that. Remember to leave reviews about the format of things, possibly some recommendations on where to go with the story, Ii have a couple things planned but I don't have it like completely planned.**

 **So, as always, Enjoy the story, Or don't, but either way leave some feedback.**

"Rythian made it here first so you know."

Yes I did Aloi, Yes I did. "Skill list" I whispered.

 **DING!**

 **[Skill List]**

 **Observe**

 **Stealth**

 **Sword Mastery**

 **Blunt Weapon Mastery**

 **Unarmed Mastery**

 **Firearm Mastery**

 **Dual Wielding**

 **Sense Danger**

 **Power Strike**

 **Detect Bloodlust**

Huh, this is interesting, I wonder how many other skills I can unlock…

"Hey, Rythian, what are you looking at there? Whatever it is you seem to be very interested." Janik said, while Aloi was simply staring at me, with a stare in her eyes almost saying 'Don't blow this, I trusted you.'

"Oh, nothing, just Observe-ing the view, I've never seen the forest like this, as I wasn't really looking while I was flying through the air." I said, hoping The Gamer Semblance would recognize the word Observe, and it did.

 **Ping!**

 **[Observe's level has risen by 1.]**

Well, that's nice.

 **Name: Janik Ravier**

 **Class: Marksman**

 **Level: Lv22**

 **Rank: A (Att: S | Def: C | Sem: A)**

…

 **HP: 500/500**

 **MP: 100/100**

…

 **STR: 5**

 **VIT: 15**

 **DEX: 200**

 **INT: 30**

 **WIS: 7**

 **LUK: 50**

…

 **Emotions: Curiosity. Concern. Confusion.**

Hmm. Interesting.

"Okay then Rythian, it is quite beautiful to be fair."

And now's my chance to click the windows closed.

 **BING**

 **BING**

And Aloi's gaze had softened, thank goodness, if looks could kill, everyone between here and Vacuo would have been murdered by now.

"It is, but we should keep heading up to the cliff edge." I said, hopefully taking attention away from me.

"Okay then R, let's go team Jasper!" Sun said.

* * *

Once we reached the top of the cliff, Glynda was waiting there with a Scroll in her hands, with quite a surprised expression on her face,

"Oh, hello, I did not expect you four to come back so soon, we will be announcing your team and team leader soon in the Auditorium, if you would follow me."

"Okay then Mrs.…" Sun said, in the exact tone he said 'Okay then Mr.…' when we met Ozpin.

"Glynda, just call me Glynda, or Mrs. Goodwitch, nothing else." She replied.

"Okay Glynda, lead the way." Sun and Janik said, at roughly the same time.

"Okay Mrs. Goodwitch, we look forward to our time at Beacon." Me and Aloi said, in perfect sync.

"Very well then, I will lead the way."

* * *

"Janik Ravier, Aloi Ravier, Sun Wukong, And Rythian will form, Team Jasper(JASR), Lead by…"  
He paused, as if it wasn't obvious by who was at the front of the name.

"Rythian." I can say I was not expecting that, as most teams were lead by the first person named… unless he knew…

"Good job R, I think it's because of the plan you whipped together at the ruins." Sun said, followed by a firm handshake.

"Nice, I'm confident you will be a more than competent leader." Janik said, with a nod.

And then Aloi's response, which was just a simple bow.

"Okay, now team JASR will follow Glynda to their room, and there will be a one-day break in classes for everyone to meet the newcomers, and for classes to be slightly re-planned, as JASR have sadly missed some important lessons." Ozpin said, shifting his focus mid-sentence from Team JASR to the audience. With a response of silence, which was then followed by Glynda overtaking the microphone.

"In case it wasn't clear, you are all dismissed." She said, and then turning from the microphone, "And you will follow me to your room."

"Okay."

* * *

"This is your room, Team RWBY is next door, Team JNPR is across the hall, if you wish to introduce yourselves, you will be neighbors for the next 4 years."

Whelp, paying 2 months' rent in advance seems like a pretty bad idea right about now.

"Cool, we will introduce ourselves to them as soon as we unpack." I said.

"Good idea Rythian, I believe that Beacon is famous for being the only major combat school that sometimes sends multiple teams on a single mission, so it should be important to know our allies." Janik said, just as analytical as ever.

"Well, I will leave you to unpack and introduce yourselves, see you in two days for classes."

"Sounds good, see you around Glynda." Sun said.

And then we entered the room, there definitely wasn't enough room in here for everything, Janik had what looked like a sort of seclusion chamber or something, Aloi had a couple fold out walls, and Sun had something I would call a cat-tower, but he's a monkey, and I think that might be a little racist.

"Oh man, what are we going to do to clear up some space?" Janik said.

"Maybe I can help with that." Said the most chipper and happy voice I have heard in my life, and definitely not anyone on my team, so I turned around quickly, just in time to see a black clad figure with a red cloak/hood, and some Rose Petals floating on the wind, before slowly dissipating into dust, and a window floating above her.

 **Ruby Rose**

 **The Red Reaper**

 **Lv 28**

"GAH! Sorry, you surprised me, who are you?" Sun said.

"Oh, sorry, My name is Ruby Rose, I'm the leader of team RWBY, and I saw, well everyone saw, your guys' battle with that Deathstalker, that was amazing, and your weapons, your weapons are so cool, Yours is a Bo-staff that splits into shotgun nunchucks, isn't it?"

"Uhh, yes it is Ruby, and my name is Sun Wukong by the way." Sun replied.

"Well met Sun." Ruby said, shaking Sun's hand while obviously observing Ruyi-Bang and Jingu-bang, Sun's weapons.

"Hello Ruby, my name is Janik Ravier."

"Hello Janik, your weapon is a Bow-Gun, right?"

"Yes it is Ruby, I call it Horizon, because I can hit anything until the horizon."

"That's a cool name, both yours and your weapons'. You are Rythian I assume?" she said, shifting her gaze to me.

"Yes I am, hello Fellow-Leader Ruby."

"No need for that, just call me Ruby, but I couldn't help but notice your weapon is an Atlas Style Multi-tool isn't it?"

"Yes it is, I can tell you like weapons a lot."

"Yes I do, check out mine, I even made it myself!" Ruby said, as she unfurled the red and black shape on her back, which seemed to be a sniper rifle, which she showcased and then transformed it once again into a Giant Scythe, with the sniper function still active and pointing out of the top of the scythe.

"So it's a scythe as well as a Customizable High Impact Sniper Rifle?" I replied.

"Of course, I didn't expect to find someone who loves weapons as much as I do. And you, you're Aloi, right?

"Yes, my name is Aloi, and before you ask, my weapon does not transform into a gun, it is simply a sword and shield."

"It's still cool, and it being mostly transparent allows for loads of cool strategies, and besides, I only know one other person with an appreciation for the classics." Ruby replied.

"So, you mentioned you could help organize the room so we can fit all our stuff?" Janik mentioned.

"Oh yeah, the idea is Bunk beds!" she said, somehow more energetic than any time she had talked before, if that was even possible.

"Bunk beds?" Janik said.

"Of course, my team set up some, it was the only way we could get all our stuff in without tossing anything out!"

"Okay then, lead the construction project Foreman Ruby." Sun said.

"Okay, first step, repeat after me, BANZAI!"

"Uhh, BANZAI!" JASR said in unison.

* * *

"That works and looks better than expected, great idea Ruby!" Sun said.

"Thanks, it worked even better than I expected." Ruby replied, filling my head with worry about how she didn't seem to expect it to work.

"Can we meet the rest of your team? They must be worried about how you ran off and hadn't been seen for a while." Janik said.

"Oh yeah, WEISS! BLAKE! YANG! WAKE UP!" Ruby yelled, while smacking on the wall that apparently was the shared wall between JASR and RWBY.

"Ughhhh, you dolt we're getting up!"

"I'm already up, just let me finish this page of my book."

"Okay sis, it still baffles me how you _**ROSE**_ so early in the morning!"

"Yang, not this early, don't start already, I would say more but I don't want to."

"What? **Cat got your tongue** Blake?"

Silence.

"I'll go get them, they seem to be having some trouble getting up." Ruby said,

"Okay, see you all soon." I said, before turning and getting a face full of Rose Petals and a gust of wind, She's fast.

"Okay, we're back, so this is Weiss Schnee." Ruby returned, and gestured to the White colored girl, in a white combat skirt with her hair in a ponytail to the side, everything about her appearance was white, except for the red inner lining of the high collar, and a single scar over her left eye, and as usual, a name window.

 **Weiss Schnee**

 **Ice Queen**

 **Lv 31**

"Hello Weiss." I said, offering a handshake.

"Hello, you must be Rythian, the leader of the new team." She said, not returning the gesture, possibly out of not wanting to shake my hand, or because she just didn't notice, it was one of the two.

"Okay, Weiss, this is Janik," Janik waved. "Aloi." Aloi just nodded, as she commonly does. "And Sun Wukong." And Sun gave a peace sign.

"I'm just going to assume you don't know what that means where I'm from, Sun." Weiss snapped back.

"Uhh, no, where I'm from it's just saying peace…" Sun said, possibly fearful of Weiss.

"Well, I'll let you off this once, just don't make that sign to anyone from Atlas, they may not be so forgiving."

"Okay then." Sun replied.

"Since that's over with, this is Blake Belladonna." Ruby said.

And she gestured to the Black and White wearing girl who I saw Sun with the other day, as usual wearing the black and white outfit, with the Bow on top of her head as usual.

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **Outsider to All**

 **Lv 34**

"Oh, hello Blake." Sun started, "This is Rythian, our team leader, who you may have seen yesterday." I waved. "This is Aloi, she doesn't talk much, a bit like you actually." Aloi nodded, just after firing a glance at Sun who would have probably keeled over and died after that glare. "And this is Janik, he's a bit like that Ren guy you told me about."

"Hello Blake." Janik said, offering a handshake, and unlike Weiss Blake accepted the handshake.

"Hello Janik." Blake replied, while shooting an inconspicuous glance at Janik's ears and then another glance up towards her bow, and then Janik simply nodded as if in understanding of something.

"Okay, that went better than expected, you got two words out of her, more than usual." As Ruby said this Blake shot an almost cruel glare at her, while silently whispering "You know why I'm so quiet, and you understand, so just shut your mouth for a moment." Which I was able to hear clearly thanks to my Grimm powers.

"Okay, so this is Yang Xiao Long, Xiao Long is her last name, Yang is her first, she is not Yang Xiao," small pause, "Long. Don't call her that, and she is my sister."

I shot glances between the two, whereas Ruby had black hair with red tips, Yang was golden blonde, like, actually glowing slightly-blonde, and she was wearing very short black shorts, which I tried not to look at for the sake of my own reputation, a short skirt of sorts, a brown leather-like jacket with a golden undershirt, okay stop looking there Rythian, you'll start sending the wrong picture. Aswell as black fingerless gloves, and what seemed to be some golden bracelets, so instead of sending any messages I didn't mean to, I started reading the information window above her.

 **Yang Xiao Long**

 **Goldilocks**

 **Lv38**

"Hello Yang. My name is Rythian, this is Sun, this is Aloi, and this is Janik." Each just simply waved as I said their name.

"Well, now that we've all met, let's tell each other about our weapons and semblances, so that we can better fight as a team if we ever need to!" Ruby said, excited as ever.

"That seems like a good idea Ruby." Janik said, agreeing.


	6. Kill the Skills

**A/N**

 **This one is a bit short, but it's kind of a set up chapter, there will be a good deal of action next chapter, and I will try to make it a longer chapter to make up for this one.**

 **"SORRY!"**

"Okay, so you are a close-far ranged fighter, you are mostly a support type, you are mostly melee, and you are melee and mid ranged, right?" I said, referring to Ruby Weiss Blake and Yang respectively.

"Yes, so Janik is ranged, Aloi is close usually, and far range in a life or death situation for a reason she won't say, Sun is mostly up close and personal, and you are a jack of all trades pretty much, Correct?" Weiss confirmed.

"Yes, that is correct. So, anyone up for some training?" I said.

"That sounds great, maybe we can learn how to fight as an eight-man team instead of two four-man teams." Janik said.

"Okay, I'll go get the bullhead, you guys all get ready and meet me at the landing pad."

"Okay sis, just need to grab some extra ammo for Ember Celica…"

"I'm ready already you dolt, I'll just go with you."

"I'll grab my book and some Dust rounds for Gambol Shroud."

Aloi nodded,

"Okay, just be warned, watch out for banana peels on the ship."

"Sun, you always sit next to a trash can, and yet you always choose to throw the banana peels on the floor." Janik said, finishing the chain of replies.

"Okay, BANZAI!" Ruby said,

And RWBY followed.

"BANZAI!"

And then JASR followed.

"Banzai..!"

* * *

"Okay, so, Aloi, anything more you wish to enlighten me about your semblance? Since everyone else is currently in the main area?" I said.

"Okay, if you have not had a chance, look over your skills, decide which ones you use the most, and if any of them are active skills, you have to say the name to use them." Aloi responded,

"Ahhh, okay. Skill List." I replied.

 **DING!**

 **[Skill List]**

 **Observe**

 **Stealth**

 **Sword Mastery**

 **Blunt Weapon Mastery**

 **Unarmed Mastery**

 **Firearm Mastery**

 **Dual Wielding**

 **Sense Danger**

 **Power Strike**

 **Detect Bloodlust**

"So, I just tap the skill I want to look at?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I currently tapped the only skill I have 'used' since joining the party.

 **DING!**

 **[Observe (Active) LV5 – EXP: 25.00%]**

 **Observes the target being looked at.**

 **Higher levels reveal more information about the target.**

Nice, let's see everything else.

 **DING!**

 **[Stealth (Passive) LV2 – EXP: 90.50%]**

 **A skill that allows the user to act undetected.**

 **Higher levels can help the user hide from higher level foes.**

 **Level 30 provides the ability to create a bubble of total silence around you.**

Nice, not one to play like that in games but this seems pretty powerful.

 **DING!**

 **[Sword Mastery (Passive) LV5 – EXP: 0.00%]**

 **Strike targets in range with a one handed melee weapon.**

 **25% Increase in attack damage.**

 **25% Decrease in attack speed.**

 **With each level damage will increase, and the speed de buff will decrease.**

Hmm, that is one skill I can get behind, I can skip blunt weapons because I don't use them, and it's probably the same thing.

 **DING!**

 **[Unarmed Mastery (Passive) LV1 – EXP: 25.00%]**

 **This skill determines your speed and strength without a weapon.**

 **0% Increase in attack damage.**

 **0% Decrease in attack speed.**

Huh, that could be useful in a pinch.

 **DING!**

 **[Firearm Mastery (Passive) LV1 – EXP 0.00%]**

 **Strike targets from a distance using firearms.**

 **0% Increase in Ranged Accuracy.**

 **0% Decrease in Recoil.**

 **0% Increase in Ranged Damage.**

 **0% Increase in Bullet Speed.**

Interesting, I wonder what Janik's firearm mastery level is…

 **DING!**

 **[Dual Wielding (Passive) LV1 – EXP:0.00%]**

 **Use dual wielded weaponry to inflict swift attacks on the target.**

 **70% decrease in attack damage.**

 **30% increase in attack speed.**

 **Each level decreases the damage de buff and increases the speed buff.**

Interesting, with some grinding that could become very very powerful.

 **DING!**

 **[Sense Danger (Passive) LV5 – EXP: 0.00%]**

 **A skill that detects any environmental danger in the area.**

 **It is an instinctive skill.**

 **50% chance every second to detect danger within 50M from the user's location.**

 **It also alerts the user of its origin.**

Nice, that seems good.

 **DING!**

 **[Power Strike (Active) LV1 – EXP: 0.00%]**

 **Strikes the target with strong force.**

 **15% increase in critical rate.**

 **50% increase in attack damage.**

That could be nice…

 **DING!**

 **[Detect Bloodlust (Passive) LV5 – EXP: 0.00%**

 **A skill that detects any bloodlust directed at the user.**

 **It is an instinctive skill.  
Detects bloodlust within 50M from the user's location.**

 **It also alerts the user of its origin.**

It's like Sense Danger, but a trap can't exactly have a bloodlust for humans.

"Okay, I think I've got the hang of my skills." I said out loud.

"Okay Rythian, just remember, like in Sky Center you can find skill books and 'observe' them to learn the skill, although you may not have the required stats." Aloi said,

"Will do."

"Okay, I think it's about time we're landing, get ready to fight, and use all the skills you want to level up."

"Got it." So, Observe, Stealth, Dual Wield, Sword Mastery, possibly some Unarmed Mastery as well.

"Let's go." Aloi said, before donning the Stoic expression she usually had and walking out of the door to the main area.


	7. Kill the Transformation

_**A/N: This is the next chapter of the story.**_

 _ **Much like how I took inspiration from The Gamer Girl for The Gamer semblance, (Seriously, go check it out, it's awesome.)**_

 _ **I also took inspiration from another story for part of this chapter/all the rest from here on, I will say the story at the end of the chapter so it isn't spoiled for anyone who has already read the other story, but wants to read this one. So, enjoy!**_

 _ **I do not own RWBY, so yeah.**_

"Let's go."

"Yes, let's." I replied, following out the door.

"Okay, team gems, let's go fight some Grimm!" Ruby said, before leaping out of the bullhead before it even hit the ground, and then firing Crescent Rose downwards to slow her descent, before landing with the end of the scythe stuck into the ground.

"You dolt, wait for us! There might be an Alpha Deathstalker or something." Weiss said, before making a staircase of white glyphs out of the bullhead towards the floor.

And then Blake transformed Gambol Shroud, hooked in into the bullhead, and then slid down the black ribbon, and then team RWB started running into the forest to the left.

"Wait up sis, don't hog all the fun!" Yang said, before pulling a pair of aviator sunglasses out from under her scarf, putting them on and launching herself out of the bullhead, and then propelling herself towards where her team went by firing Ember Celica multiple times.

"Whelp, let's go, I think we should head to the right, so there are no incidences of crossfire, Crescent Rose would probably tear a hole straight through any one of us, even through our aura." I said.

"That sounds like a good idea Rythian." Janik said, before doing a sort of leap of faith out of the bullhead and landing in a roll.

"What are you waiting for, let's go!" Sun shouted, while he leapt into the nearest tree, before starting to survey the area,

"Let's go R." Aloi said quietly, before whispering something else even quieter and appearing on the ground below me.

"Let's go team Jasper!" I said, before simply jumping out of the bullhead and landing on my feet, digging into the ground slightly, third law of motion and what not.

* * *

As we ran through the red forest we encountered some small groups of beowolves and Ursai, which were no problem, and I leveled up my sword mastery once, before finding an open clearing, and hearing Ruby shout faintly from quite a distance away.

"Don't worry guys, this is just like that time I told you about Yang, I can take all of these Beowolves, the only difference is this time it isn't snowing."

Before a hoard of Beowolves made themselves known in the clearing we stood in the middle of, along with a couple of Alpha Ursai.

"Janik, provide covering fire for everyone, fire if anyone is about to be hit, Aloi, fight the beowolves, Sun, cover Aloi, I can take the Ursai." I said,

The other members of my team saying various forms of "Okay, got it!"

I rush forwards to one of the Ursai, a Beowulf is shot behind me, I keep running towards the Ursa lightning fast, before making Katar transform into a Katana-esque blade and matching sheath, holding the sheath to the left side of my hip, unsheathing the blade and slicing upwards, cutting the Ursa in half, as I lunged through it, turning to my side there is another Ursai standing there, slashing at my right side, I align my blade so that the claw is redirected into the ground, and instinctively stabbing the Ursa through the chest with the sheath of Katar, before transforming Katar into another form, which had the blade shorten and 'transfer' some of it towards the sheath to give it enough 'mass' to become a full shield, and I block a swipe incoming from my left, push it backwards and counter attack with the blade to cut off the last Ursa's legs, as I turn around I see a large number of the beowolves have been killed, but more of them have come. I transform Katar back into the katana-like form, running through the beowolves slicing them in Iaijutsu, a shot ringing out every once and a while, followed by a Beowulf dying and being flung into another Beowulf, more beowolves being sliced in two parts, the horde slightly dwindling, more still coming, continuing the cycle, slicing, shots ringing out in the red clearing, slowly the amount of beowolves are dwindling, only a few are left, I charge forwards towards one and a shot rings out, as an arrow flies past my face, piercing the Beowulf and another rings out, a shotgun blast firing from just outside by vision, blasting another Beowulf, I see a blade silently slice through the final one, light flowing through the blade that made the cut, the clearing is clear now, the beowolves start disintegrating, no more are coming, so now I relax, I turn around and see Aloi wiping her sword off on the red grass of the forest, to clean the blood off of Rhindon, Janik was going around picking up his arrows he used, checking if any could be salvaged to save some Lien, Sun was eating a banana.

Then the ground started rumbling, causing the whole crew to stop what they were doing and prepare, as a giant death stalker charged out of the forest, more bone plating than any Grimm should have, larger than any I have seen, Weiss JUST had to tempt fate, didn't she? It was an Alpha Deathstalker, a claw strikes out surprisingly fast, knocking Janik to the side, as the other one grabs Aloi, Sun tries to fire some shotgun blasts but it isn't enough, he is struck by the stinger, not poisoned, just struck very hard, everyone now is low on aura and unconscious, except for me, I feel a strange feeling coursing through my veins, it starts at my feet, working its way through my blood, when it gets to my hands it forcibly changes Katar into the sword and shield form I had found earlier, but this time the shield is a full body shield, instead of the buckler-type shield it was before, and the sword is the size of a great sword, yet it feels just as light as the dagger form of Katar, they turn silver with a golden trim around them and a floral pattern, as opposed to red with a golden trim like normal, and the dust rings I have seem to absorb into the hilt of the sword, I realize my clothing now has armor plates placed around every part of my body that wasn't a joint or my face, as I feel the power course through my torso and neck, my head feels a little heavier, and some gold hair flows into my vision, not to be distracted by whatever this is, I charge towards the Alpha Deathstalker, and it starts to turn around and run, as I hear a familiar voice in my head

" _You hold the flame. You cannot die."_

I continue rushing towards the Deathstalker, I reach it and I bash it's left legs with my shield while I run past, causing it to fall to its side, I turn on a dime, before slicing horizontally to the left, trying to slice straight through the faceplate of the Deathstalker, although now my sword is the size of a typical great sword, I end up slicing the whole thing in half, before I can turn around and think about what just happened, from where I sliced the Deathstalker it bursts into white flames with a tint of purple, disintegrating much faster than any normal Grimm would do. After surveying the situation I realize we are now safe, any smart Grimm would not come anywhere near where an Alpha Deathstalker was killed, and I think we have already killed all of the dumb Grimm, and I shout out to my team,

"Hey, you guys okay?"

My voice is much higher pitched than normal, and much more 'soothing' if that is the word, I freak out a moment, trying to get my scroll out of my pocket, I open it to look at my reflection to see what I look like, maybe this is my real semblance? I don't know, but when I see my reflection I see long golden blonde hair, instead of my normal short black hair, I look at my face, but before I can think much more my face turns back to normal, my hair shortens and turns black again, and Katar shrinks, almost back to the normal size of the sword/shield mode, but the blade is still wider and longer, and the shield is still much bigger, but they are back to red with a golden trim, the armor plates have disappeared, and everything feels normal again, hoping it was some sort of hallucination because my whole team had nearly died, as well as me. I look around, to see my teammates are still unconscious around the clearing, I pull out my scroll and send a message to Ozpin.

 _Urgent,_

 _My team was knocked unconscious by an Alpha Deathstalker that surprised us after a battle we were trying to practice teamwork in, we are fine now, I somehow killed it, after I get back we need to talk without the rest of my team, I think it might have been my semblance, I don't know._

I drag Sun Janik and Aloi to some trees along the side of the clearing, not wanting to leave their side in fear that a lone Grimm may still be nearby, and kill them while they were unconscious, I call out.

"RUBY! WEISS! BLAKE! YANG! THE OTHERS ARE UNCONSIOUS AND WE NEED HELP!"

I see some white lights appear further into the forest, Weiss must be using her glyphs to rush to help, maybe I over sold the need for help a little bit, I saw some red explosions, that must be Yang flying through the air, and I see some rose petals rush by me.

"Oh, hey Ruby, it's okay, it's just they are unconscious after a pretty big fight, but they'll be okay, we need to get back to Beacon though, there might still be a couple Grimm nearby."

"That's a relief, but what attacked you? It must have been strong to take out 3 of you." Ruby said, with a window above her.

 **Ruby Rose**

 **The Red Reaper**

 **Lvl 30**

"Well, it was a few Alpha Ursai, a giant horde of Beowolves, and then an Alpha Deathstalker that caught us by surprise after the battle." I replied.

"Woah, yeah, we should probably head back then, make sure they are going to be ready for classes, I heard that when classes start back up it is going to be our first mission!" She said, half way through her normal speech turned into almost a squeal of excitement.

"Yeah, you'll call the bullhead?" I said, still contemplating what my semblance even really does…

"Okay, I'll be right back!" She replied, before running a bit away to make the call.

"Status window." I said quietly.

 **Name: Joakim Hellstrand**

 **Class: Grimm-Born**

 **Level: 50** _ **(Nxt Lvl 47%)**_

 **...**

 **HP: 5500/5500**

 **MP: 2500/3000**

…

 **STR: 30**

 **VIT: 35**

 **DEX: 60**

 **INT: 20**

 **WIS: 25**

 **LUC: 100**

…

 **Point: 40**

 **Money: 480,000 Lien**

Woah, 5 points a level, I'll put the stats in later. Better close the window before I let the secret loose by staring into nothing and poking the air.

"Okay, the bullhead is on its way, Weiss Blake and Yang are on their way too." Ruby said.

"Thanks Ruby, although we should still be on the lookout in case there are any scavenger Grimm, who might try to kill them." I replied.

"Okay." She said, before giving a comical salute then standing perfectly still, yet somehow rotating to look around the clearing.

* * *

"Okay, be sure to call me when they might be waking up." I said to the paramedics who took the rest of my unconscious team.

"You said you wanted to talk? You believe you have found your semblance?" Ozpin said, after every one nearby was gone.

"The answer to both questions is yes, but I don't want anyone to know until we know the full extent of my semblance." I replied.

"Okay, follow me to my office, you can tell me the details there." Ozpin replied, as calm as ever.

"Lead the way." I said.

 _ **So, the story I took inspiration from for Joakim/Rythian's semblance is called Jaune Arc Jo Arc**_

 _ **(Any feedback is appreciated, and feel free to post some guesses as to the semblance, if you haven't read Jaune Arc Jo Arc yet.)**_

 _ **So check that out, that's awesome too, although English is not the writers first language, it's still pretty cool.**_

 _ **Also, you may have noticed how where there was nothing, there now is the line**_ _ **that is because there was supposed to be a line there, but apparently underscores don't show up when I publish it, but I found how to put one there in FF's writing thing.**_


	8. Kill the Author Notes

_**Autor notes.**_

 **Hello Apprentices (Get it? Cause I'm a wizard, and usually wizards are teaching people, and whatever.), I am going to take much more inspiration from more stories I have read in my spare time, and I want to make sure that every general idea you like, you go check out the original story, which I put at the beginning or end of the chapter, (With a few exceptions, where I will let you guys guess where I got it from, which it will them be stated in the beginning of the next chapter.)**

 _ **Sorry for the large break, but as I have said, I simply 'write' in my spare time, so I cannot reliably push out chapters for this story, (And any others I may write, NO PEEKING AT MY NON-EXISTENT NOTES!)**_

 _ **Also, due to the weird way my mind works, I have things planned, but only general things, such as semblances, weird background plots, certain general occurrences, like The Breach (ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH!). And tings like that, so any, I MEAN ANY, feedback is appreciated, with reviews of certain aspects, certain reccomendations, Soon I will do a Q\A thing, so put your questions it the reviews.**_

 ** _Xiao long, and thanks for all the tuna._**


	9. Kill the Exposition

**A/N**

 **Hello pupils, this is another chapter that has a pretty strong reference to another RWBY story, which I will say in chapter 10 so that there are no spoilers, but you are free to guess as always. Feedback is apprecciated, reccomendations are appreciated, enjoy the chapter, and I do not own RWBY, and neither do you, unless you do, in which case HELLO ROOSTER TEETH! AND WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE ON PHYRRA'S BEHALF! _Cough_ **

**Okay then, now that's over, enjoy the story.**

"Mr. Rythian, I saw what happened, Forever Fall has cameras set up everywhere, as well as the Emerald Forest, I saw you slice that Alpha Deathstalker in half, I saw it become engulfed in white flame, and I saw the 'side effect' of your semblance, and I know much more, you don't need to hide anything from me, because I most likely already know it." Ozpin said, interrupted by him sipping coffee every few words. "Or should I say Mr. Hellstrand?"

"Ozpin, I don't want to start a war with beacon, or anything like that, I just want to help people, despite my 'condition' I just want people to be able to live normally, even if it means a suicide mission into the Wasteland to destroy the main groups of Grimm, I don't want people to have to live fearing that they may be killed in the night by a flock of Nevermores." I replied, hoping my want to stay in beacon was seen.

"I understand, if you want this to remain a secret and stay here, it is fine, if you want it be remain a secret, and leave, you can, if you want to announce this to your team, go ahead, I'm not going to step into your business." Ozpin stated.

"I- I would like to keep this a secret, and stay, but back to the original topic of this conversation, do you know anything about what my semblance is?" I replied, honestly wondering if he knew.

"Well," Ozpin said, before leaning over the desk and lowering his voice. "Mr. Joakim Hellstrand," He continued, before leaning back into his chair. "Have you heard of the Arc family line?"

"Well, I know that they are a famous family, mostly due to all generations to this date having a great hero who turned the tide of the war in favor of the 'good' side of the fight."

"What if I told you, that the current generation Arc legend is in Beacon, and is the leader of one of the first year teams?"

"Juniper?"

"No, although they do have an Arc leader, but he is not the current generation's legend."

"What team then, Cardinal?"

"No."

"Well it's not Ruby of team Ruby, but I'm not an Arc."

"But do you know that as a fact?"

"Well, wouldn't my last name be Arc?"

"Who said Arc is the last name for the family?"

"Everyone who wrote every history book ever. And the fact that the 'family' would be the name of the last name."

"Well, it's not a 'family' in the way you mean, every once and a while, a secret organization will contact a doctor, who will then contact the family, who will then name their child's middle name Arc, it's almost like a 'prophecy' of sorts, and yet sometimes this organization can mis-mark someone as an arc."

"So, you are saying I'm an Arc?"

"No, I am telling you that you are an Arc, I know because of your semblance, have you ever heard of the first Arc?"

"Johnathan Arc? Who turned the tide of the Third Crusade?"

"No, not the ' _first_ ' Arc, the **First** Arc."

"No, I don't believe so."

"Well, the first arc was Jo, and she was one of the first humans to unlock their aura, and since no one at that time had unlocked their aura, everyone thought Jo was using magic, and wielded the 'Holy Flame' or 'White Flame' or the 'Holy Light' or any other variants on that sort of thing, and you have the same semblance, and appeared to 'become' Jo for lack of a better word."

"So, I am an Arc, who is half Grimm, and can 'become' the first Arc ever? To think, a couple years or so ago I was just a kid on a farm, playing make believe fighting with my brother with some sticks, this is definitely different."

"Yes, it is, also, I believe you may want to find some sort of job, I find it hard to believe you would not become bored just sitting around doing nothing."

"Thank you for keeping this a secret, and I think I know a job I could do."

"Very well then, be on your way, and remember to practice using your semblance."

* * *

A black clad figure could be seen flashing between the leaves of the trees, with a black coat, and a black cloak/hood combo, which are accented in black feathers, a white face mask with red gem-like eyes, and small locks of blonde hair peeking out from the hood, going through the forest tops, running and jumping from branch to branch, before stopping near a clearing which housed a small building with a red wolf head with red claw marks going behind it. People in black clothing and white masks with red eyes are carrying boxes out of Bullheads and into the building, after a while the boxes stop moving, before most of the masked figures go into the Bullheads and fly away. And then the feather-clad figure leaps into the air, before landing on top of the building, and then leaping off of the building and landing on top of another black clad figure and then standing up and hitting the man in the back of the head with a baton, and then moving on quietly and invisibly to the other guards, before knocking them out as well, and then heading into the building, allowing a few guards to catch glimpses of the black feathery figure, and allowing some others to hear whispers of 'The Nevermore' before knocking them out.

A sudden quiet whistle rang out of the forest nearby, before a group of four people head into a clearing, before noticing that all of the White Fang members were unconscious on the floor, but still alive.

"Uhh, Blake, did you do this?" A high pitched voice spoke.

"No, I didn't do this, they were already like this." A quiet voice spoke,

"Aww, I was hoping to blow open this building with a _**YANG**_!" A voice spoke, practically yelling the last word.

"Seriously, this is supposed to be a stealth mission, although it never really is a stealth mission with you, is it Yang?" A stern voice spoke.

"Nope!" Ruby said, "But we should head here, maybe the Omega dust is still there."

"Maybe, then we can return it to the Schnee warehouses." Weiss said.

"Okay, let's get in." Blake said, before walking in the door to a strange sight.

Practically the whole base's guards were unconscious in the room, and a black feathered figure was standing on a catwalk with its back turned to the team.

"Oh my, I wasn't expecting an audience, it seems I have to entertain some guests then, allow me to introduce myself." The figure spoke in a feminine voice.

" _Hear my now as I reveal,_

 _That there's nothing I cannot steal,_

 _Below the shattered moon I soar,_

 _I am The Phantom nevermore."_

She spoke, and spun around with a flurry of her cape when she said the last line, before taking out a handgun-like weapon and firing at Weiss, who immediately fell asleep.

"Sorry about your friend, I'm not very used to crowds, but don't worry your pretty little heads, Weiss-Cream is still alive, she'll wake up in an hour or so, but I'm afraid I have to leave now that I have my prize." She said, as she held up a bright red Dust crystal she retrieved from inside her coat.

"Unless of course, you four want to stop me, but if you do, I would not be able to say your hair would be safe Yang." She continued.

"How do you know me?" Yang said, cradling her hair.

"Who doesn't know Yang " small pause, "Xiao Long?" The Phantom Nevermore spoke once again. "Or the former White Fang Faunus, Blake Belladonna? Or Ruby Rose, the prodigy student from Signal, graduating 2 years ahead of plan, or Weiss Schnee, the Ice Queen of Team RWBY, the most skilled team in the first year group of Beacon for this year."

"I know more than you know, and I know more of you than you know, so I am going to have a proposal, we play a little game, I have four minutes to spare, if you defeat me to the point where I give up, I will give up thieving, and join Beacon, and fight along you against the Grimm, but if I defeat you, or the four minutes are up, I will leave and continue thieving. Deal?" The figure spoke again.

"You got a deal, but the hair is off limits." Yang spoke.

"Okay, I'll even let you have the first punch, and first two slices, first strike for all of you."

Yang charged forwards, firing Ember Celica downwards to launch her into the air, and then front flipping into a punch to The Phantom Nevermores face, just to find she had moved a foot to the right just before the punch could make contact, slamming the baton into Yang's head as she flew by, knocking her to the floor.

"I said first punch, not first contact, now, Blake, you're turn."

Then Blake immediately used her semblance to create a clone that just stood there blankly, meanwhile the real-invisible Blake ran to the wall, pushing off of it with all of her strength, launching towards the figure preparing Gambol Shroud to slice at the woman's neck, just to realize that the figure was staring at her, not the clone, and quickly ducked but this time did not use the baton.

"What, you think a Phantom Thief won't have strong other senses than sight?"

"But, no human could have that level of hearing." Blake said.

"What, do you think I chose a Grimm themed name for nothing? This is a world of creatures that feed off of negative emotions, crystals that have elemental power, humans who can tear giant creatures apart without a sweat, is it that hard to consider the possibility of a Human-Grimm hybrid?" The figure spoke, no hint of dishonesty in her voice. " And did you think that I made a mask with a moving mouth? Too much work for me."

"Half Grimm? How does that even work?" Blake said,

"It involves a human, and a Grimm, any more questions? 3 minutes left." The Phantom Nevermore said.

"Do you know why unconscious Yang is somehow crawling over to Ruby and covering her ears?" Blake said.

"Huh, no idea, maybe it's because of the accidental implications of my last statement, that's actually really creepy." The Phantom Nevermore mentioned.

"Yeah, it is… so since we obviously can't even touch you, I suppose you'll be leaving?" Ruby said.

"Yeah, and this totally isn't so the almighty Author can get out of writing an awesome action scene that will blow literally all the reader's minds when they read it." The Phantom Nevermore said, with the most 'not there' expression on her face ever, despite being under a mask.

"What in the world did you just say?" Blake said.

"I have no idea, like half of those words have no meaning to me." The figure said.

"Well, I would say 'see you around', but that would mean you would keep stealing, and I kind of don't want to mean that." Ruby said.

"Okay, well, I'm not going to stop, so you might as well say that, but I'm already gone." The Phantom Nevermore said through a skylight in the roof of the building.

"Well, that sure was something." Blake said.

"Yes it was Blake, yes it was." Ruby spoke. "YANG I KNOW YOU'RE UNCONSCIOUS BUT COULD YOU PLEASE STOP COVERING MY EARS!?"


	10. Kill the Juniper

_**A/N Hello guys, Wizard Of here, sorry for the long break and short chapter, but I've hit a bit of a wall until now, although I'm pretty sure I just broke through, so ENJOY AND LEAVE REVIEWS PLEASE!**_

 _ **As usual, I don't own RWBY, neither do you, unless you do, in which case PYRRHA STILL LIVES IN OUR HEARTS!**_

"Rythian! Where have you been?" Sun said.

"I just had a meeting with Ozpin." I replied.

"Okay, but hurry up, we have to get to the Bullhead, we're heading to Forever Fall." Janik spoke.

"Okay, just gotta grab Katar." I replied.

* * *

"So, how long until we land?" Sun said.

"About 2 hours, and no matter how bored you are Sun, that guy has it worse than you." Janik replied, motioning to a blonde figure in jeans and a black hoodie with armor plates that was hunched over a trashcan.

"Who's that?" I said.

"That's Jaune-Jaune, team Juniper's fearless leader!" A chipper voice spoke behind us.

"MONTY FREAKING OUM HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?!" Janik said, breaking the 'unmovable object' appearance he held up most of the time.

"Only about 3 hours, it's nice to meet you, you're the new team I take it?" A quiet and calm voice spoke, belonging to a figure with black hair and a magenta stripe, wearing a simple green tunic with black stripes, and had pink eyes.

 **Lie Ren**

 **The 'Ninja'**

 **Lv30**

"Yes, we are the new team, This is Janik, this is Aloi, that's Sun over there eating a banana, and I'm Rythian." I said.

"Nice to meet you Rythian, I am Lie Ren, and this is-" Ren spoke, before being cut off.

"NORA VALKYRIE SLOTH QUEEN!" The chipper voice spoke again, who was a short ginger short haired girl with a white and black shirt, a pink skirt, blue eyes and a giant hammer at least twice her size.

 **Nora Valkyrie**

 **Sugar Incarnate**

 **Lv ?**

"Is she always like this?" I hear Janik say quietly, looking at Ren.

"Every waking hour of the day." Ren spoke, in his calm voice, accented by a small smirk on his face.

"So, where's the rest of your team?" I say.

"One of them is, as you can see, hunched over that trash can, and that's Pyrrha over there." Ren said, motioning to a Red haired woman with a circlet on her head, green eyes, wearing a red cloak around her waist, with armored greaves and chest piece who was currently polishing a shield and sword, which the shield is golden with a simple design, and the sword is red with a gold trim, and appears to have mechanisms inside of it.

 **Pyrrha Nikos**

 **Four Time Champion**

 **Lv 40**

"THE Pyrrha Nikos? The four time Mistral tournament champion?" Janik said.

"Yes, she is the four time champion." Ren said.

"Yeah, she's UNSTOPPABLE! Teamed up with the sloth queen and the best ninja ever then we are really unstoppable!" Nora said.

"For the last time Nora, I'm not a ninja, a ninja wouldn't be wearing bright green, or use any form of firearm, or pretty much anything else I do." Ren said.

"Wait, your arms can catch on fire! Since when!? And how can I learn to do that? Can you cook pancakes on your arms now? Ren I want pancakes, set your arms on fire to cook some pancakes!" Nora said.

"Excuse me a while as I explain this to Nora." Ren said before motioning for Nora to follow him.

* * *

"That was a thing." I said.

"It sure was."Aloi said.

"So, I take it you guys met Nora and Ren?" A voice spoke behind us spoke.

"MONTY OUM HOW IS EVERYONE SNEAKING UP BEHIND ME!?" Janik said.

"Very carefully?" The voice spoke.

"DON'T ANSWER MY RHETORICAL QUESTIONS!" Janik said.

"Okay, I wont." The voice spoke again.

"So, why don't we actually just turn around, we haven't even been looking at this guy." I said.

"That's a good idea. " Aloi said.

So I turned around to see a blonde man in a black hoodie and jeans, with armor plates strapped over parts of the hoodie.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Tall, Blonde, And Scraggly**

 **Lv 10**

"Hello, I assume you're Jaune Arc?" I said.

"Yeah, that's me." Jaune replied.

"Ahh, so you feeling okay vomit boy?" Sun said.

"Hey, motion sickness is more a problem than most people know! And why does everyone give me that nickname!" Jaune said.

"I'm sure he was joking, right Sun, you were joking?" I said.

"Maybe..." Sun said.


	11. Kill the Nevermore

**Author here, Not much to say, other than remember to leave reviews, and sorry for the short chapter again, I'm just kind of setting some things up.**

 **I do not own RWBY, and neither do you, unless you do, then WE WILL HAVE OUR PYRRHA BASED REVENGE!**

"Okay... so, we're heading to Forever Fall to get some sap for something, right?" I said.

"Yeah, if it's anything like last time, we should be good, just don't throw sap at anybody." Jaune said.

"Do I want to hear the story?" I said.

"I don't know, I'll tell you later if you want." Jaune said.

"We're here. Remember, stay in teams, this is a Grimm infested forest after all." Janik says.

* * *

"Team JNPR, JASR, come over here." I hear Ruby say.

"Okay Rubes." Jaune says, before motioning his team to follow him.

"Lets go guys." I say to my team.

"So, after team RWBY and JASR went training, Weiss got a call from her father saying an Omega dust crystal was stolen by the White Fang, so me Weiss Blake and Yang went to a White Fang supply depot thing in the outskirts of Vale, and all the fang were already beaten! They were unconscious when we got there!" Ruby said.

"Who attacked the camp?" I say, knowing more about who attacked the camp than they do.

"This cloaked person who called himself the 'Phantom Nevermore' did it, single handed, and then when we found them they had the crystal, and proposed we play a game." Yang said grumpily.

"A game? What was it? Chutes and Ladders? Monopoly? Monopoly Star Wars Edition? Monopoly Sloth Edition?" Nora said.

"There isn't a sloth edition of monopoly, and before you ask, there isn't a pancake edition either, I think Yang means like 'play a game' figuratively." Ren said.

"Yeah, they said if we beat them to where they gave up before four minutes they would join beacon and use their skills to fight Grimm."

"And if he won, he would keep doing what he's doing." I say.

"How did you know?" Blake says.

"I mean, there's nothing you could have given him, and no thief is going to give himself up if they win. It's just called an educated guess." I said.

"Herself, and I guess that makes sense., but you want to know the weirdest thing?" Ruby said.

"Sure, I want my team to know everything in case we run into her." I say.

"They were part Grimm, her mouth was all bone-plate-ey and stuff." Ruby said, and I could almost feel Aloi's eyes burning into the side of my head.

 _ **PING!**_

 **[ _Detect Bloodlust_ 's level has risen by 1]**

"Really? That's crazy!" I say, trying my best to act surprised.

 _ **PING!**_

 **[ _Bluff_ 's level has risen by 1.]**

 **[ _Act_ 's level has risen by 1.]**

Those are new...

"Yeah, but then when we started fighting, she offered us all first attack, but when Yang did her special launch-flip attack, she dodged and countered with a baton thing, knocking her unconscious and said 'I said first attack, not first contact!'" Ruby said, quoting me- although not knowing it was me- in the most caveman voice ever.

"Really? I've never seen anyone who can dodge that, nevermind have a good counterattack!" Jaune says.

"Yeah, and then when _I_ attack, using a clone to distract him while I go invisible and attack him, he somehow senses me! Most Faunus can't even reach that level of senses." Blake said.

"Don't worry Blake, she probably trained like all her life to avoid being snuck up on, and who knows what powers a half-human half-grimm could have." I say. "It's like how, sadly, most Faunus have to learn 'undesirable' skills to get by, due to the racism in the world."

"I suppose, but still, the point is that he did two things that have not been done until now, dodging Yang's attack and 'seeing' me when I was invisible." Blake said.

"Well, we should finish up and head back before Grimm swarm us." I say.


	12. Kill the Show Off

*Students, return to the bullhead with the jars of sap.* A message appeared on mine, Jaune's and Ruby's scroll.

"Well team, time to head back to beacon in the bullhead." I say.

* * *

"Since there are new students, I have been instructed to repeat the first few lessons of the year, as they were not here to listen." Professor Port said.

"Hey, Rythian, I've heard port's lectures are terrible, and he doesn't even notice if you sleep through them." Sun says.

I nod, before tuning out everything.

* * *

Who here believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits? Apart from the students who were here before." Port says.

I look around, realizing literally everyone else is asleep, I figure it wouldn't hurt to raise my hand, since no one else will.

"Well then, let's find out. Step forward then, and face your opponent!" Port says, gesturing to a rattling cage I didn't notice was there.

I start walking down to the small arena, before Port says something else.

"Shouldn't you be grabbing your weapon from the armory?"

"Didn't you say something about killing a Goliath with a salted mackerel? I think a Boarbatusk unarmed should be a walk in the park for an aspiring hunter or huntress." I say.

 _ **PING!**_

 **[ _Intimidate_ 's level has risen by 1]**

"That's the spirit!" He says, before cutting the lock off of the cage with a battle-ax blunderbuss, releasing the angry Boarbatusk.

The Boarbatusk starts spinning, before rushing forwards quickly, but not quick enough, I calmly step out of the way.

"Hey, sleepyheads! The lecture's over! You can wake up now!" I say, dodging another charge mid sentence, causing most of the students I know to wake up, well, all of them, apart from Ren.

The Boarbatusk charges again, and I dodge, this time by running towards it and jumping.

"Hey, Porky Pig, is that all you got?" I say, hoping to make the Boarbatusk angry. It charges me much faster than before, and I dodge again.

"Oh come on, you gotta roll faster than that!" I say.

"Make the enemy angry, and then they will become reckless, good plan, but can backfire in the wrong situation! Keep watching students, you may learn something." Port says.

"Good thing this is the perfect situation then." I say, before squaring off my stance, staring at the Boarbatusk spinning, before it charges and I make no effort to move, I barely hear the start of a gasp from some members in the audience before the Boarbatusk makes contact, I grab it by the tusks, causing a small dent in the floor where my feet are, but before they can turn into a large hole, I front flip, sending the Boarbatusk smashing into the ground immobilized and wounded. I grab a tusk tightly and kick the face of the Boarbatusk, leading to the tusk being severed, the Boarbatusk squeals before I send the tusk spinning out of my hand into the stomach of the Grimm.

 _ **PING!**_

 **[ _Unarmed Mastery_ 's level has increased by 4]**

"Well done! Well done! I believe we are in the presence of a true hunter in training. Congratulations Rythian, class dismissed." Port says.

"Thank you Professor." I say, before joining up with my team to head to the next class.

* * *

"Welcome to Aura Manipulation class, students. This class is where you will learn to manage your Aura better, as well as help in training your Semblances." Glynda said. "Jaune Arc and Rythian will be in those two secluded rooms, as they have larger amounts of uncontrolled aura, so as to avoid any accidents."

* * *

After practicing focusing my Aura into pin point locations by doing one finger-full body push-ups and enforcing my arm and pointer finger with aura, I notice my normal black-purple aura becomes white-gold all of a sudden, and I feel the transformation happening, armor plates form over my clothes again, and a 'unbalanced' weight causes me to fall from my push-ups, Katar forms the shield and sword, but the shield is in sheath form on my back, and the sword is in it, blonde hair falls into my face as usual, but this time instead of feeling like the power is coursing through me, it just 'happened' despite me not activating it, I attempt to store away the power but it doesn't work, I use my normal power to become invisible, and silently open the door of the room, noticing everyone other than Jaune simply sitting in the main room with their Aura glowing around them, I start moving out of the room, before I exit the room and start running towards Ozpin's office, while I'm still invisible.

Well, this is new.

 _ **PING!**_

 **[ _Stealth_ 's level has risen by 3]**

At least it's not all new.

* * *

"Yes, I was in Aura Manipulation class, and I transformed into Jo Arc again but this time involuntarily, no one saw me sneak out thankfully." I say, filling Ozpin in on what happened.

"This is troublesome to say the least, And please Ms. Arc, do not come in through the window in the future." Ozpin Said.

"I just thought the elevator being called and then ridden to your office floor by nothing would attract attention. Now, back to the situation at hand, what do I do? I still want to be there for my team, as they can't technically go on any missions without the leader, but then even if you set up a backstory for "Ms. Arc" and say Rythian had to leave, I still don't have a way to cover up my Grimm face, and I can't exactly sit around and do nothing and hope it wears off, like it did the first time, but I can't really leave beacon either, because the only way on/off beacon is by Bullhead." I say.

"I can provide a mask for you, which 'fits' the rest of you're appearance, and you underestimate how creative I can be, you will have a backstory with no holes in it, and there will be a perfectly solid reason for why Rythian just disappeared." Ozpin said. "And yes, you can remain on your team, as leader. However, if you truly want to keep the fact that Rythian and Jo are the same a secret, you may want to be double sure that you don't say anything only Rythian would know, or Vice Versa."

"I know how being undercover works, thank you very much, now wheres the mask?" I say.

"It's in the third-from-the-bottom drawer of the fourth filing cabinet over there." Ozpin says, gesturing to a wall of filing cabinets.

I walk over to the filing cabinets, counting four to the right and three from the bottom, i open up the drawer to see a fine bandanna, bright white with golden lines swirling around, with a clip on the back, as opposed to just needing to tie it.

"Wow, thank you Ozpin, I guess I'll _go find where my teams room is and introduce myself when they come back._ " I say. Clipping the bandanna to hide my face.

"Yes, you should probably do that, and you don't need to play along when the only people in the room already know." Ozpin says, typing things on his desk, and seemingly dragging files around on his hologram computer.

"I know, just getting into character." I say, before leaping out the window of the office, before landing.

* * *

Ozpin taps a button on his desk, as a window appears in front of him with Glynda's face on it.

"Glynda, remind me to actually put windows in my office." Ozpin says.

"Okay Ozpin, but what pushed you to finally make this decision?" Glynda says.

"A bird just flew in, I had to shoo it out before it tried to eat the tea maker." Ozpin says.

"The window will be up immediately." Glynda said, but just before she turned off her scroll, she said "Precious tea..." **_Click_**


	13. Kill the Memories

"Brother! I just thought of a new game we can play!" I said, while my brother shot a quick glance over to our mother, who quickly nodded.

"Alright Joakim, let's go play." My brother said, before I grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him out behind the farmhouse, where I had been setting up the game for a while now.

"TahDah! Isn't it awesome brother?" I sais, pointing to some wooden gloves with wood claws on them, and a sword and shield, all made of poorly carved wood, as well as a small castle.

"That's petty cool Joakim. So, how do we play?" My brother said.

"Easy! You are going to grab the claws, and I'll get the sword and shield, and then I'll be a knight defending the castle from giant Beowolves!" I said as I grabbed the sword and strapped the shield to my left arm, before jogging over to the castle.

"Okay, any specific rules?" My brother said, before fitting the wood plates over his hands, and grabbing the handles which made it look like he was just clenching his fists.

"Just that when I hit you anywhere but the claws you have to make a noise, and then walk backwards a bit, and if you can push me back past the castle you win. Now, I, Brave knight Joakim Hellstrand, shall defend Blackrock Hold against the Evil which plauges the land!" I said, before emulating the stance my father used to use when he fought with his sword and shield, crouching low and hold in the shield in front of me, so only the top of my head could be seen, because I had to peek over to see my brother preparing, and my other hand was holding the blade touching the right side of the shield, ready to stab at any moment.

My brother briefly falled silently and smoothly into a position which held his right hand in front of his stomach, facing to my left, and his left arm sideways in front of him, which was to his left, despite his head turned to the left, so it was straight ahead of him.

I charged towards with my shield at the ready, as he hopped towards me once, keeping his stance correct, he jabs with his forward arm, impacting the shield, I pushed his claw back and upwards, attempting to throw him off guard, and I sliced from the right, being careful his other arm doesn't come into action, but it stabbed at me from the left quickly, I lower my shield to block it. As my sword is still swinging I felt it impact, and as I look back I see that my brother blocked my strike with the top of his forearm, which was technically the claws as it was covered in wood.

He hopped backwards, landing exactly where he started and resetting his stance. "Not bad, maybe in the future you could be a hunter, and make a name for yourself, aswell as the Hellstrand name."

"Really! You really think I could cut it!" I said, briefly forgetting we were 'fighting' I lowered my sword and shield, before my brother replied he quickly closed the distance between us and stabs for my right side, knowing I can't bring my arm around fast enough I try the only thing I can, I deflect the strike using my sword, before I bash my shield into my brother, he falls backwards as I leap at him on the ground, swinging my sword for his neck, and stopping just before, to tap lightly.

"Yeah, definitely, only problem would be getting you noticed, maybe we could pull some strings with some family friends at Atlas, get you in a combat school." My brother said, releasing the handles of the gloves and allowing his arms to slip out of it, completely serious.

"Did you know you're the best brother ever?" I said

"No, pretty sure that title belongs to you Joakim." My brother said.

"You're at least the best older brother ever." I said.

"Now that one, I know is true." My brother said.


	14. Kill the Greetings, Again

"Hello? Earth to Blondie?" A voice spoke, breaking my from my day dream.

"Uhh, yes? I was just thinking." I say, technically saying the truth.

"Who are you and why are you outside the rooms?" Weiss says.

"Weiss-o serious?" I say, followed by Weiss stomping off mumbling about there being 'Two of them'

"Okay... so, who here is Team Juniper?"

"That would be me, Janik Ravier." Janik says, gesturing to himself. " Aloi Ravier," He says, gesturing to Aloi, who is staring above me. "And Sun Wukong," He says, gesturing to Sun, who is eating a banana, as usual. "And our leader, Rythian, who has disappeared."

"Well, My name is Jo Arc, and I would've thought Ozpin would have sent out a message. Basically, Rythian had to go back to his home town, his father became ill, so he has gone to comfort him, and if things get worse, say goodbye." I say, lying through the skin of my teeth.

 ** _DING!_**

 **[ _Bluff_ 's level has risen by 3]**

"Well, that clears some things up, but still, why are you here?" Aloi says.

"I've been sent to be a stand-in leader, for the time that Rythian is gone." I say, noticing Blake's bow DEFINITELY twitching.

 _ **DING!**_

 **[ _Observe_ 's level has risen by 1]**

"Well, nice to meet you Jo Arc, I'm Jaune Arc." Jaune says, offering a handshake, which I accept.

"Nice to meet you Jaune." I say.

"Well, I don't mean to break up this family reunion, but what's your relation to Rythian?" Blake says.

"Long story short, we were childhood friends, hence why I was sent to be the stand in leader." I say. "Now, I know you." I say, looking at Jaune. "Janik, Aloi, Sun and Weiss-Cream, as she is a Schnee, But I don't know any of you, so any introductions?" I say, gesturing around the rest of team JNPR and team RWBY.

"Well, I'm Yang Xiao Long, _No need to be envious Blondie._ " Yang says, whispering the second half while gesturing to herself. "And this is my sister, Ruby Rose, and this is the resident shy bookworm, Blake Belladonna." She says gesturing to the members of team RWBY, before Jaune cut in.

"Yes, and this is Pyrrha Nikos, that's Lie Ren, and there's sugarbomb extraordinaire Nora Valkyrie." He says, gesturing to them.

"Nice to meet you all. Now, any questions?" I say, giving a slight bow.

"I don't mean to be rude in any way, but why haven't I heard of you in my family?" Jaune says.

"Well, I'm your cousin, and as someone who has 7 sisters, I'm sure you can imagine how expansive the rest of our family is, so that's probably why." I say.

"Okay." Jaune says.

"Well, what's your weapon?" Ruby says, smiling.

"Well, it's a simple large sword, and a shield, with dust infused into it." I say.

"That's cool, so does it have a name?" Ruby says, staring at my weapon.

"It's 'Vita In Crocus', it means The Yellow Life, roughly translated." I say.

"That's a cool name." Ruby says.

"Well, now that's out of the way, can anyone open the door to the Jasper room? because I wasn't given a scroll yet." I say.

"Well then Jo, I'll use my scroll, so I think we should probably head our separate ways." Aloi says.

* * *

"So Jo, what do you think of Beacon so far?" Sun says.

"Well, it certainly seems nice, the city's a lot more advanced than what I'm used to, but that's not really a bad thing." I say.

"What about the people?" Sun says, a faint smirk on his face.

"Well, so far people seem nice, not much to go on though." I say.

"So, what're you thinking about Yang?" Sun says.

"Well, she's certainly unique, to say the least." I say.

"Yeah, pretty sure unique is definitely the word." Janik says.

"Hey, dressin' like that isn't bad." Sun says.

"Seriously Sun? You have to go that way?" I say.

"What? She's the one who dressed like that." Sun says.

"I'm just going to drop this, before it devolves into something else." I say.

"What, how could that "Something" be bad" Sun says.

"I'm just going to take a walk, and your mind better be out of the gutter by the time I get back." I say, walking out the door, before closing it, to see Blake briefly disappear around a corner.

And of course, me being me, I start following Blake while invisible, to briefly hear her say something about 'the statue courtyard'.

And me being me, I run to the only courtyard with a statue I know in Beacon, to wait there before she gets there, so I can talk without seeming like a stalker.

* * *

I stand in the courtyard, looking at the statue, a hooded man wielding a sword and shield, standing triumphantly over a beowulf, beside a hooded woman, wielding some sort of sniper rifle, looking off to the side, as if searching for threats.

"Oh, Hello Jo, I didn't expect to see you here." I hear Blake say.

"Nor I You." I say.

"That's some fancy wording there friend, what're you doing?" Blake says.

"Just kind of thinking, who do you think the statue is?" I say.

"Well, it's one of the earlier generation of Arc, definitely, but I don't know who the woman may be." Blake says.

"Interesting, what're you doing?" I say.

"Just clearing my head in general." Blake says, a bow twitch betraying her blank expression.

"Ahh, I imagine living in plain sight as a Faunus could be quite stressful." I say, "Especially with a past such as yours."

Blake quickly turns to me, her bow flattening against her head. "What!?"

* * *

 ** _Wizard Of here, just saying, last chapter is supposed to be Jo 'Arc' Hellstrand daydreaming, waiting._**

 ** _Now, on about the end scene, Wow, I wonder what's going to happen next? (I'm lying, I know the answer entirely.) So yeah, you may be wondering, 'Why did you bother writing a A/N so late, when you could just write the next chapter with a A/N?'_**

 ** _And now, I will leave you with one simple answer. That would make sense._**

 ** _And I am not one for making sense._**

 ** _Now I leave you with three questions._**

 ** _Can you please leave more Reviews? I do not mean to sound like I'm begging, I just want more feedback, to know how I'm doing._**

 ** _Can someone leave a name/theme for a criminal much like this story's Phantom Nevermore? In the future, The Phantom Nevermore is going to get a partner in crime, but I can't think of a name/theme._**

 ** _And now, the final question, can any of you draw well? I want to draw pictures of- Rythian, (Masked and unmasked,) Aloi, Janik, and Jo, if any of you readers can draw well, message me, I will give you a bit more of a guideline as to what the characters look like, so you can draw them better._**

 ** _And now, I will leave, so now I will soon be writing the next chapter._**

 ** _I do not own RWBY, neither do you, unless you do, in which case PYRRHA SHALL LIVE ON!_**


	15. Kill the Cat, After It Leaves The Bag

"Okay, before you either run away or kill me, I don't look down upon you either for your past, or for your heritage, because really, neither of them were in your control." I say, trying to calm Blake down. "If anything, I look up to you more, because you left, instead of staying."

"But it was! I could have left the Fang earlier! Before I went on those missions, I could have left!" Blake says.

"But you couldn't, and you know that, if you left before whatever time you did, you would have been hunted down immediately." I say.

"Before we say anything else, how did you know?" Blake says.

"Well, multiple ways, for one, and the pretty largest one, I'm pretty sure bows don't twitch, and the way you walk, and the way you scour everything with your eyes, and you look like you're always on guard." I say.

"Okay, so, does anyone else know?" Blake says, while getting out of her combat stance.

"No, at least I don't think so, maybe Janik does, but that's kind of what I wanted to talk about." I say.

"What?" Blake says.

"I'm really bad at lying, and if you don't want you being a Faunus to be known, I don't want to tell everybody without you wanting to." I say. "So, I wanted to ask, is there any tips or tricks you can give me on lying? So that I don't let the cat out of the bag?"

"Well, I can try to help." Blake says. "But only if you don't make any more puns."

"That pun was unintentional, Sorry. Now I would say thank you, but I think it's more you should be thanking yourself, because it's your secret that you're protecting, or I'm protecting, whatever." I say.

"I suppose," She says, chuckling slightly. "I, Blake Arryn Belladonna, thank you, Blake Arryn Belladonna, for protecting my secret."

"I have one thing to say, and it's that I truly understand why you're hiding what you are, you have no idea what people will react like, you don't want to be judged simply by what was out of your control, and I can say I'm going through the same thing." I say.

"Wait, are you Faunus too?" Blake says, thoroughly confused.

"No, but I'm not human either." I say.

"What..." Blake says.

"I'm part Grimm, it was some project gone wrong, or right, I don't know what they were really trying to do, but now I'm part Grimm." I say.

"So... the mask?" Blake says.

"Yes, this is the mask, you hide ears with a bow, I hide bone with a mask." I say.

"Why are you telling me this?" Blake says.

"So you can trust me, if I let your secret loose, you get subject to some racism, worst case scenario, if my secret got out, I would be kicked out of beacon, and forced to live in the wilds, best case scenario." I say.

"So, that mask, is hiding a Grimm bone jaw?" Blake says.

"Yes, yes it is, it's impossible to eat in public." I say.

Blake goes silent, before turning her gaze to the floor, mumbling "Bone jaw... 'Weiss Cream'... blonde..." And then staring back at me again.

"You- You're the phantom?" She says.

 _"Hear me now as I reveal, I have more secrets than a Moray Eel, As your jaw drops to the floor, I am The Phantom Nevermore."_ I say.

"You are..." Blake says.

"Yes I am, as I believe I've said in the past, I'm bad at keeping secrets." I say.

"Why?" Blake says.

"It's quite simple really, I agree with what the white fang are doing, but I don't agree with how they're doing it, I heard of them stealing high quality burn dust from the Schnee, so I stole it back, can't have a group of people bent on killing everyone have their hands on very potent explosives, can we?" I say.

"That's an excellent point." Blake says.

"And yes, soon Weiss will probably get a call, saying how the dust has been found back in the warehouses, along with a note written by a certain avian with quite a refined choice of words." I say.

"What does the note say?" Blake says.

"You'll just have to wait to find out, can't spoil the surprise can we?" I say.

"And there's The Phantom Nevermore shining through." Blake says. "So, are you really a friend of Rythian?"

"Yes, everything I said in our last meeting was true, except for the not knowing you, that part was a small lie." I say. "So, if you're okay talking about it, what happened to make you leave the White Fang?"

"Well, I suppose it won't hurt to talk about it." Blake says. "It started in a sort of 'assassination' mission, in a hospital..."

* * *

 **Wizard Of here, and OOOOOHHHHH MAN! Thought I would just use the train mission as canon in my story? THINK AGAIN! Now, a hospital, I wonder what's going to happen in the hospital, probably something gruesome, involving people being sliced into really really tiny pieces, blood splattering against the walls, euthanization of sick people... I, for one, CANT WAIT!**

 **Yes, my three questions from last A/N still stand.**

 **I don't own RWBY, neither do you, unless you do, in which case BLAKE BELLADONNA WILL HAVE A DARKER CONFIRMED PAST THAN JUST HAVING TO DEAL WITH THE CONCEPT OF KILLING SOME HUMANS AND THEN JUST SAVING THEM!**


	16. Kill the Hospital

"Adam, are you sure this is the place?" I say, referring to the hospital we are on top of.

"This is the place, this hospital has been refusing service to Faunus for far too long, it's time we finally do something, set an example, so to say." Adam says, cutting a hole in the roof of the hospital, lifting the piece of roof silently, before motioning me to follow, and jumping down.

When I jump down, I see a nurse, taking notes near and slightly controlling, a machine linked up to a figure on a bed, a child, very pale, growths on his chest, the machine connected to his ears, and lungs, unconscious, and Adam preparing to cut the nurse in half with Wilt, despite just being a bystander, trying to save a kid's life.

And he cut, slightly above the hip, causing blood to spray over the walls of the room, the machine, and the child in the bed, who sat up, eyes bulging, coughing violently, before collapsing back into the bed, blood leaking from his eyes and mouth, dead, and the nurse slumped to the floor.

"Blake, clear the rooms on this floor, when you are done, come help in the lower floors." Adam says, before cutting another hole in the floor, leaving me to 'clear the rooms' of anyone who stood in our way.

I walk through the hallways silently, entering the rooms, seeing sights of more people in beds, nurses looking over them, before I stab them, or cut their throats, as well as the patients, as most of them were on life support that the nurses were managing, before returning to the entry point, and jumping down the hole Adam had made earlier, seeing another dead nurse and patient, blood splattered all over the walls, before heading into the hallway, Adam was quick, he always was, no one doubted that, but I had never seen him move this fast while killing quicker, quick slices, clean cut, and another hole in the floor, despite being not five feet from the stairs, noting how Adam seemed to be done with this floor, I jump down, to be greeted with a much larger room than the last two, cafeteria of sorts, a few nurses slumped over tables and half-finished-blood-covered food, blood sprayed over the room, as well as yet another hole, jumping down again, I look around seeing that I'm in a waiting room, I walk into one of the hallways, to find Adam before we leave.

Blood splattered everywhere, nurses and doctors slumped against the walls, blood in a solid coating of the floors, some people on the floor, writhing in pain, clutching at their throats, some clutching at their stomachs, hoping to stop the bleeding, dim red lighting, the emergency lights had turned on, as the other squad had turned off the power at some point, knowing that I had supported the man that did this, that I had laid my life in that man's hands, that I had **trusted** him, as I realize that I had contributed to this slaughter, I thought what this path would lead me to, I could imagine the future, me, covered in blood, in a situation much like this, in some Schnee building or something, with a modified Gambol Shroud, a serrated blade, covered in the blood of innocents.

"Blake, are the upper floors clear?" A voice spoke, ripping me from my thoughts, Adam's voice.

"Yes." I say, trying to not let my emotions seep into my voice.

"Okay, Theta squad has run into some Atlesian Knights, I'll assist them, you make sure that the hospital is clear, **Show them what happens when they deny the Faunus**." Adam said, before running through a hole that he had cut in the wall, he as well, was covered in blood, head to toe.

And I ran, I ran so far away. 


	17. Kill the Paladin

"And... That was when I decided to leave the White Fang." Blake said.

"Wow, I can't imagine that." I say.

"So, Jo, does Rythian know about your situation?" Blake says.

"Yes, you two are the only people I have trusted this information with. Well, as well as Ozpin, but he practically knows everything by default." I said.

"Well, are there any specific abilities you have because of it?" Blake said.

"I'm not entirely sure, I have advanced hearing, smell, as well as speed and strength, I haven't really had any opportunities to test my capabilities, I'm afraid someone will see something and panic." I say.

"That makes sense Jo, although, if you want we can go hunting together, so that we can see how strong you are. It's not everyday you have a Grimm person on your side, is it?" Blake said.

"That makes sense. Sure, that sounds like a good idea." I said.

"Well, we should probably get back to our teams, they're probably wondering where we are." Blake said.

"Probably, so, we go hunting tomorrow?" I say.

"Sure, but for now, let's go." Blake said before walking away.

* * *

"Hey Jo." Janik says.

"Hello Janik, now, before you say anything Sun, just don't, you'll thank yourself later." I say.

And then I walk to my bed, and doze off to sleep.

* * *

The whole world is blinding white, except for the roof and some windows in a beautiful castle, a ways off, there is nothing other than this castle, apart from a long legged figure, legs literally twice as tall as their torso, clad in black armor with red accents, made of overlapping plates, large shoulder pads, the helmet featuring breathing slits and a small slit to see through, as well as a black metal horn protruding from it's forehead, it's boots have claws on their heels, and wielding a set of black metal claws attached to the armor's gauntlets.

"Soon Joakim, Soon you shall be ready, but not tonight." It says, in a voice seeming to simply exist, rather than speaking.

"Who are you?" I say, drawing my blade from my back, and attaching my shield to my left forearm.

"Quick with the questions aren't we? I can understand why, all you need to know is that you may call me the Hero's Shade." The Hero's Shade says, once more sounding as if it is all around me.

"What is this place?" I say.

"This, is one of the in between places, that is all you may know, although I have an old technique I must pass on, for it is a shame to have such a skill be simply forgotten in the annals of time." The Hero's Shade says. "First, you must clear your mind, think of your inner power, the power that lies within you, **beneath your so called 'Aura'** this power lays dormant, without using this technique, it would simply be a waste, and then think of it rising to the surface, coating your body."

And I did so, and then I was in pain.

I could feel this power, and then drawing upon it, I could feel it rushing to plate my body, and it did, it forced it's way through my skin, from some indistinct layer beneath my skin, pushed itself outwards, and then took the form of gleaming armor plates, covering my whole body as a single unit, and yet not solid, it was a single unit, with intricate beautiful designs carved into it, or protruding from it, I could feel it like a second skin, it was solid, five inch thick metal armor of some kind, and yet it was weightless, and did not stop my movement in any way, and feathery plumage out of the back of my 'helmet' which also, was of the same material, and yet somehow purple, my helmet also sprouted a horn, but it was literally glowing, and then the visor grew shut.

And then I could see everywhere, as if the armor itself was my eyes.

 _ **Ding!**_

 **Through perseverence, and unlocking your hidden potential, a new skill has been created. " _Spirit Of Order"_**

"You still have a long way to go, and when you are ready, I will be here to test your strength." The Hero's Shade said. "I only hope that you find your power soon, rather than later, it gets dreadfully boring here."

"Okay then The Hero's Shade, I shall grow stronger, to what ends I do not know, but that is a fact, not a goal." I say.

"That is an interesting viewpoint, Paladin Joakim, I only hope those are not empty words." The Hero's Shade said.

And then I woke up.


	18. Kill the Paladin Statistics

"Hey Jo, wake up!" I hear someone say.

"Good morning whoever you are, please let me wake up on my own time." I say, sitting up.

"Okay then, but you might miss breakfast." They said.

"REN! LET ME GO! I NEED MY PANCAKES!" Someone yells from outside the room, and you can probably guess who it is.

"Whelp, I guess that's my alarm." I say.

"It's one hell of an alarm clock." Janik says.

"You can say that again." Sun says.

 _ **DING!**_

 **Through a relaxing rest, you have gained the status** ** _Well Rested._**

 ** _System Alert._**

 **There has been an update.**

What?

"Well, I'm going to go practice in the forest, maybe by the time I get back I'll be given a scroll." I say.

"Happy hunting then Jo." Aloi said, subtly staring at a point in space, possibly at the same window I saw.

* * *

"Hello Blake, ready to go hunting?" I say, slightly startling Blake if the 'bow' shooting up is anything to go by.

"Yeah, you ready?" Blake says.

"Would I be here if I wasn't?"

"Good point."

"So, are we running or taking one of the student bullheads?" I say.

"Running, I think we could use all the exercise we can get."

"Yeah, with the tournament coming up and what not, so, shall we be on our way?"

"Let's."

"Now who has the fancy wording?" I say.

"Oh shush."

* * *

"I think this is far enough." I say.

"There's still Ozpin's cameras." Blake says.

"As I said before, Ozpin already knows." I say, smiling at a tree behind Blake.

"Okay then, I'm pretty sure there's a group of Ursai that way. You up for it?"

 **[Spirit Of Order (Active) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light, fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Increase in abilities relative to the rank of the sub skills.**

 **All rank ups of this skill can be spent as points to rank up the sub skills.**

 **[Power Of Order (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light with immense strength and unshakable will, fight for what is good through all obstacles, physical and mental.**

 **Increase strength and will.**

 **Is only active while Spirit Of Order is active.**

 **[Eye Of Order (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light, see the truth, as well as be aware of your surroundings in order to fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Increase senses, dexterity and balance.**

 **Is only active while Spirit Of Order is active.**

 **[Sword Of Order (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light with immense power, despite physical limitations, fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Increase damage, and injury.**

 **[Paladin Heavy Stander (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light steadfast and strong, able to shrug off physical blows, in order fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Chance of giving status Heavy Stander.**

 **Is only active while Spirit Of Order is active.**

 **[Paladin Natural Shield (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light and use their own power to slow projectiles to minimize damage, in order to fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Chance of giving status Natural Shield.**

 **Is only active while Spirit Of Order is active.**

 **[Paladin Mana Deflector (Passive) Rank F]**

 **By allowing the inner self to shine through, empowering the body with the power of the soul, one can become a true warrior of light, allowing their own power to shield against other's non-physical attacks, in order to fight for what is good through all obstacles.**

 **Chance of giving status Mana Deflector.**

 **Is only active while Spirit Of Order is active.**

"Am I Ready?" I start.

"You better believe I am." I finish, activating Spirit Of Order.

* * *

 ** _A/N_**

 ** _Hello apprentices, Wizard Of here, and things are heating up! I wonder what the Knight In (Literally) Shining Armor will do next?_**

 ** _What are the new extents of his power?_**

 ** _What was that update all about?_**

 ** _Will there be any ships in this story?_**

 ** _These will all be answered soon, although I can answer that second one right now._**

 ** _That update was me Retconning things, I didn't like the format The Gamer was in, (Mostly because I cant be bothered to figure out what things should be improved per level, to be honest I didn't even have a planned Level Cap!)so I just changed it to fit a game I play._**

 ** _And yes, a RetCon is a little cheap, but I just couldn't write much more in that other format, notice how there wasn't much going on Gamer wise in the last few chapters?_**

 ** _Although, I will do one last Retcon._**

 ** _Katar just transforms itself, it is no longer a multi-tool._**

 ** _A small thing, but I just realized that it being a multi tool didn't fit with what I wrote in the first Jo story-arc._**

 ** _Eh, get it? Jo- Arc?_**

 ** _No? Okay fine._**

 ** _But yes, for anyone wondering what Jo's weapon looks like, think like a FULL BODY shield, even when standing straight._**

 ** _And for the sword, imagine the Dragonslayer sword that Guts uses. You don't know Guts? Good luck finding anything with Google, it's like trying to find that one game company named Game._**

 ** _Anyways, I wonder what's going to happen next chapter?  
_**

 ** _Surely The Outsiders won't have any trouble with a few Ursai, right?_**


	19. Kill the Air

The inner power pushes itself through my skin once more, but this time doesn't hurt, after the transformation finishes, I unsheath Vita in Crocus with my right hand, feels like I'm not even holding anything, I take my shield off my back as well, holding it before me to cover my whole body, including my face, because with Spirit of order I can see out of my sword-hand just fine, the Ursa are still bumbling around, I charge forwards, running as fast as I can, closing the distance in an instant and I slam my shield into the back of one of the Ursa, or rather, **through** the back of the Ursa, like is was the ribbon at the end of a race, slightly off balance because I was bracing for impact, and lunging forwards even faster than I was running, I move my shield to the side, to realize the Ursa werent bumbling around slowly, they were charging as fast as they could, which typically wasn't that fast for Ursa, considering their size, but they almost seemed stopped to me, I look around, Blake is still looking at where I was standing, very slowly bringing her arm up to shield her eyes, and then I realized the path I was running, each blade of grass in my footsteps were very slightly bent, as if I ran on the grass as opposed to on the ground beneath it. The two remaining Ursa still starting to move, I decide it's best to end this, I step to my right with my sword crossed in front of me, spinning to the right I whip the blade out to my right, as if it isn't a blade that should need two hands at the least, slicing the Ursa in half, I see it very slowly start trying to roar, or scream, or yell, whatever magical evil bears driven by emotions do when they're in a lot of pain.

The other Ursa is slowly turning, well, at-least slowly in comparison to me, I charge forwards, ducking low with my shield in front of me, sword raised high. Now, if anyone were fast enough to see me do this, they would think, 'Raising your sword above you like that is stupid, not only does it slow your next strike, it also telegraphs your next attack immensely more than holding it at a typical ready position.' And to that, I say, Have you ever skated under a Ursa on a shield while your giant sword cleaves it in two without any resistance at all? No? Well you're missing out.

And then that's exactly what I did, I let go of my shield after 'throwing' the top towards the ground, leaped onto it, and ducked low, my sword leisurely held above me.

A moment after throwing it, I realized something, the moment the shield left my hand, is slowed down, so what do I do, thinking on my feet? I touch it with my foot as I land, thinking, and it suddenly appears to speed up, allowing me to continue sliding.

After I hear, and see, the Ursa get cut in half, I notice the blood spurting from both halves of it, but slowly, almost like there was low gravity, but there wasn't, everything was just moving really slow, apart from me and anything I touched.

The window in space that appeared confirmed what I was thinking.

 **Through constant use of an ability, you have gained the skill "** ** _Acceleration_** **"**

Closing the window quickly, I run back towards where I was standing before, just to stand exactly where I was, exactly how I was, and I disabled Spirit Of Order, the world around me speeding up again, namely the Ursa, which continued to fall apart at a normal speed, the blood landing-

"HOLY HELL!" I hear being shouted, must be Blake.

"What? I just pushed my skills a bit." I say.

"You haven't even moved, you just grew armor slowly, and then it receeded." Blake says, as I turn to look at her with the best smug look I can have.

"Look again." I say, nodding my head towards the Ursa, which just about... now started hitting the ground.

"What? How?" Blake said.

"To be honest, I don't know for sure, but the whole armor thing, apart from growing armor and making me slightly faster, I think it somehow accelerated time directly around me, in that time I killed the Ursa, and even had time to watch as the grass wasn't even pushed down I was running so fast." I say.

"There's only one person I've known who could run fast enough to not crush the grass..." She says, trailing off.

"Fang business?" I ask.

"Yes. So, is that whole thing your semblance?" She says.

"Possibly? I mean, it might be a Grimm thing, some Arc Family thing, or my semblance, I'm not sure." I say, telling the truth. "Honestly, I'll just call it "Paladin", as that is basically what it is, a literal knight in shining armor that fights for some sort of sworn goal."

"You know, that's pretty cool." Blake says.

"You know, I didn't expect you to be one who describes things as 'Cool'" I retort.

"I didn't expect you to be part Grimm." She says.

"I didn't expect you to be former white fang." I say.

"Point taken, now, I don't suppose you can help with that?" She says, looking into the sky at a giant Giant Nevermore.

"That's bigger than the one Team RWBY and JNPR took down, isn't it?" I say.

"Hard to tell, but probably, yes." Blake says. "Scratch that, It's definitely bigger, I thought it was closer."

"Well, is Gambol Shroud loaded up with Bird-shot?" I say, joking.

"Who hasn't heard of a handgun being loaded with Bird-shot Shells?" She says sarcastically.

"Well, time to go." I say, activating Paladin and Acceleration, separately.

 _ **(You were expecting a cliff-hanger here, because I always kind of leave a cliff hanger before fights? weren't you? Well SHAME ON YOU!)**_

Charging forward, I leap into the trees to try to get high enough to hit the Nevermore, and then I realize, if everything apart from me is very slow, and I was running over the grass, as opposed to on the ground...

As I hit the tree, I push off of two leaves, leaving them to react to the millisecond of weight, pushed onto them.

And then I jumped again, off another tree, and another, and then I jumped straight up.

And then I jumped off of the air molecules, again, and then one more time, and then I hit the crest of my jumps just above the Nevermore, it seemed to try to retreat from the speck of white moving toward it from the ground, probably thinking it was a bullet and that it had dodged it.

It was so wrong.

I unsheathed my sword as I started falling again, trying to strike at the 'wrist' of the beast's right wing. I hit, but it just carved a small hole and got stuck, so I observed it.

 **Darkness There and Nothing More**

 **LV?**

 **Raven**

 **HP 86%**

Oh Oum.

This nevermore has a level I can't see, a name, and is it's own RACE it's so powerful?!

Well, I did do 14% damage, whatever that translates to in numbers...

So I did the only thing I could think of at the moment.

I hacked at the wing again.

"POWER STRIKE!" I yell triggering the skill, and severing the wing, before stabbing into the main body of the Raven to pull myself to the other wing.

I get to the other side, after a few cycles of pulling myself up the now-sideways 'Raven'

Jabbing the corner of my shield into the back, I pull my sword back.

"POWER STRIKE!" I yell, and once more I swing my sword down to cut the wing, and I cut it in one strike, probably due to the window that appeared.

 **CRITICAL STRIKE!**

Driving the sword into the back of its neck with another power strike, I ride the Raven down to the ground, focusing so I don't accelerate it towards Blake, where it slightly impaled itself on a group of trees, and got stuck on one of the larger trees, leading my sword to keep momentum, resulting in decapitating the Raven, probably thanks to my Luck stat, if that carried over to the new update.

 **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!** **Level up!**

And a stack of items piled up in a neat little pile, shimmering slightly, so I observed them.

 **50000000 Lien, you do know how money works, don't you?**

 **Minor Health Potion**

 **10% healing.**

 **Dreary Midnight-Rank 3**

 **Legend has it, an ancient warrior used to make clothes and armor out of the Grimm he killed, it was dismissed as just that, a legend, as Grimm dissipate when they are killed, but this is proof that there was some truth to the rumor.**

 **Increases element affinity.**

 **Greatly increases Air affinity.**

 **Lenore- Rank ?**

 **A physical, literal Grimm mask of the nevermore, worn by only the strongest and oldest nevermore.**

Dreary Midnight was a cloak, covered in the tell-tale black feathers with white spines, the cloak itself was true black, not black like the shirt you buy at the store, but black like complete lack of light.

Lenore was a typical white mask, like the White Fang masks, although they were also used by kids for trick-or-treating, with red lines from the corners of the mask, converging into four golden-amber spots, the eyes.

I disabled Paladin, staring at these, Aloi was right, there were drops, I just thought they were going to be like small amounts of Lien, not mythical items thought to only exist in legends.

"If only it had an Inventory." I say under my breath, and to my surprise a window appears, a picture of me, as Jo, on the left, with lots of slots for equipment, as well as an area on the right with a scroll-bar with tons and tons of slots.

"Oum damn it." I say.  
"Jo! Are you okay!" I hear Blake say.

"Yeah, apparently that nevermore was special or something, where everything else my sword just cut straight through, it took multiple cuts to get the wings off... and it dropped items." I say.

"Like, things didn't dissipate?" She says.

"Kind of, look." I say, showing her the mask, coat, and the lien near my feet, as well as the health potions.

"Wow, that's weird, it does fit your 'style' though doesn't it?" Blake says.

I equip the items through my inventory.

"Yeah, feels good." I said, as I was bombarded with notices about Status Effects and Set Bonuses, as well as a new skill, which I paid attention to.

 **You've obtained the skill 'Summon Elemental'**

"Actually, I have to come clean about something." I say.

"3 secrets in a 24 hour period?" She asks.

"Well, yeah, I know what my semblance is, but it's really hard to explain, have you ever played a video game?" I ask.

"A little bit, before the fang." She says.

"Well, I'm still not one hundred percent sure what it does, but it kind of makes my life a game." I say. "Do you mind if I try out a new skill?"

"Okay..." She says.

I set up the summoning circle, I'm not entirely sure how I knew how, I just did, I guess that's what happens when you either know how to do something, or you have no idea what it is.

After I set up the circle, I started the chant.

"I, Jo Arc, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee," I started, "I hope that you heed my call. Come, Air Elemental!"

And suddenly, the forest around my started rustling with wind, not like a breeze had started, as the wind was going every direction at once.

And then within the circle, the air started into a cyclone that sent Dreary Midnight flying in the wind, until it suddenly stopped, leaving behind- in the circle, the image of a little girl with white hair and a light green dress, visible currents of air moving around her.

And by little, I mean 5 inches tall, yeah.

 _I am here._ The words were less spoken and more 'existed' but what was expected of a Air Elemental, wasn't it?

"I'll begin in accordance to the ancient rituals. My real name is Jo Arc. You have heard my true name; please tell me yours."

And then I was blasted into a million pieces, flying through the air, in almost a chaotic dance, but was somehow in control at the same time, and shortly I was everywhere, every space of air was me.

And then I was back together.

 _It's okay. I know that you do not mean to tell me anything but your true name. I am Levant, You are Jo arc?_

"Yes" I said.

 _Let us fly together someday, Jo Arc._

"I would love to."

 _We are one, as the ancient contract dictates._

"Our souls are one."

 _I am Levant._

"I am Jo Arc."

 _Until out souls meet their ends-_

"We will forever be one."

 _Call me, and I will fly for you._

And then I fell asleep, in the middle of a Grimm infested forest, dreaming of flying.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Woot! Storyline is underway, almost, just a few more chapters until Jo-akim get's his first main-story quest!**_

 _ **Man this is going slow.**_

 _ **But yeah, the whole elemental thing, what did I draw inspiration from?**_

 _ **That's up for you to find.**_

 _ **Remember, please leave recommendations for anything, and feedback.**_


	20. Kill the Mana

"Jo! Jo wake up!"

"Blake, is that you?"

"Yes, what did you just do? You fell asleep for an hour, but luckily no Grimm came by." Huh, thank you Luck points.

"I think I can just show you." I say, as I manifest Levant.

The wind around us started swirling into a point, before forming a fast-moving point of wind that could be seen, a small humanoid figure.

 **Through manifesting an elemental of any kind, the skill _Manifest Elemental_ has been created.**

 **Through manifesting an Air elemental, the skill _Air Elemental_ has been created.**

"This, is Levant, an Air Elemental I summoned, that's what the ritual was, and now I have manifested her." I say.

"That's... I thought Elementals were just a legend." Blake says.

"I thought so too, until I got a skill called Summon Elemental an hour or so ago." I say.

"Well, hello Levant." Blake says, turning toward the figure.

"Did you hear what she said?" Blake says.

 _I speak from the air, not from me, because of this I can speak to specific people._

"No, she speaks from the air, not through the air like us." I say.

"That's cool." Blake says, "Can she do anything? Because in the stories Elementals can calm storms and things."

"I'm not entirely sure." I say, wondering if she can force the air you push someone upwards, to effectively fly.

 _Remember, you do not need to speak to me for me to understand your orders._

Well then, I guess that answers my question.

I will the air below me to push up without simply moving around me, and I start floating upwards on the air.

"Well, I think this answers our questions." I say.

 **Air Affinity has increased by 1**

 **Air Affinity has increased by 1**

 **Mana Low! Mana Low! Mana Low!**

"It does drain my MP quite a bit though, but I think it will improve through use." I say, signalling Levant to lower me to the ground.

"MP?" Blake says.

"Mana points, I'm not sure if it's my Semblance's representation of Aura or something completely different." I say, resting so my MP restores, "Well, we should head back soon, we were just sitting here for an hour."

 **Through resting the skill Rest has been created.**

 **Rest (Active) Rank F**

 **While resting, HP and MP re-gen are increased by 150%**

 **Total re-gen percentage 250%**

"That's a good idea."

 **Mana Full!**

"Of course it is, I'm me." I say, un-manifesting Levant, meaning the human shaped air dispersed, but Levant was still nearby in spirit form.

"There's the nevermore again."

"Hey, I'm not going to point out every time you act like a cat." I say.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Did you just hiss?"

"Shush."

"Okay fine, lets go." I say, walking back towards Beacon while 'hardening' the air beneath my feet just above the ground to train my Air Elemental, Air Elemental skill and Air Affinity.

 **Mana low!**

Oum-damn it.

* * *

 ** _A/N_**

 ** _Sorry for the short chapter, I'm a bit caught up in RL things._**

 ** _Things will get underway soon!_**

 ** _I promise!_**

 ** _I possibly promise!_**

 ** _I don't actually promise so you have to trust me!_**

 ** _I don't promise, but I've had a past which says you shouldn't trust me!_**

 ** _This joke is going on way too long!_**


	21. Kill the Roman

"So... Do you think Rythian knows?"

"Probably Blake, he might be sending subtle hints that he knows or something, but he isn't the person to be like 'Oh my god, Blake's a Faunus guys!'"

"Okay, so so you know why he always wears a mask?"

"Ahh, still wears that thing? Yeah, it has a deeper meaning to him, but that's all I know."

"So, judging by the look on your face, you're debating something Jo."

"I am, I was wondering, since I now have an extra set, would you like to join The Phantom Nevermore?"

"What?"

"I'm asking, if you would like to be a partner in half-crime of The Phantom Nevermore."

"Well..."

"I can see it on your face, and from what I've heard, you really want to help people, but you don't want to help them like the White Fang does, that's what I'm trying to do here."

"Well, is there any plan?"

"I have a name, a 'shtick', a costume, and a target I heard about on my last mission, so that's about as much a plan as could ever be."

"Okay... so what's my name?"

" _The Spectral Raven."_

* * *

A man with a bowler hat and a cane was walking through the forest, leading the way for some White Fang soldiers who were carrying some crates.

"Damn it, I thought you were pack animals!" Roman said, resulting in a grunt from one of the soldiers, who was a Donkey Faunus.

Suddenly, a scream rang out from within the secret base they were heading towards, an explosion,

And a yell.

"GO RAVEN! I'LL BE FINE!"

"Damn it, leave the crates! check the base!" Roman yelled, readying his cane, and running into the base to a blonde woman with a large sword and a shield, slightly covered in soot, and a black figure rushing past everyone in an instant.

"Oum Damn," Roman muttered. "Someone, capture her!"

"Wait, I'll leave my weapons down, just don't attack me." The figure said, throwing her weapons towards a wall, accidentally denting it. "Sorry, they're kind of heavy."

"Okay, Deery, go get someone to fix that wall," Roman said, resulting in a groan from the deer's nickname. "You, go grab the girl and put her in the containment room."

"Okay, fine, just don't touch me, I'll you follow you." The figure said to the person Roman had pointed at.

"And you, go follow behind them, make sure she doesn't try anything."

* * *

"So little lady, how did you get into this base?" Roman said.

"Heard it from a friend of yours, good fellow, nice enough to spew some inside information before he was knocked unconscious." I say, causing one of the guards beside the door to momentarily flinch, but shake their head and continue their blank expression.

"You... was it you who was at the warehouse?"

 _"Here me now as I reveal,_

 _there is nothing I cannot steal,_

 _this meeting surely wont be a bore,_

 _I am The Phantom Nevermore."_

It was at that the guard at the door started darting their eyes around, making sure their rifle could easily be aimed and fired.

"You know, I was going to possibly recruit you, I mean you, not the Nevermore." Roman said, "But then you revealed you were the person to steal all the dust in that warehouse, I think I just might let you rot here."

"Are you sure you want to let the person, who took out an entire warehouse of yours, and the only time they were seen was when they wanted to be seen, stay in your main base of operations?"

"How did you know this is our main base of operations!?"

"I do now."

"Oum damn it."

"So, what's your answer?"

"I'll just lock the door and leave you here, possibly put a big crate in front of the door." Roman said.

"Okay, just go ahead and let me get some shut eye."

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable."

"Don't worry, **I Will.** "

At that, I got a level up in Intimidate, and Roman left the room, signalling the grunts to follow him, the one grunt still keeping his rifle trained on me,as he walked out the door.

I notice a slight purple glow seeping into my vision, I look down (Something I silently swore to myself not to do as Jo,) to notice a glowing purple crystal on my chest, I instinctively channel my Aura into the gem, and it flashes bright purple light. When the light subsides I'm no longer Jo and I am back to normal again, The ropes around my waist and chest are looser, but the ropes around my stomach seem tighter, Damn you world, Damn you.

I notice Katar is wrapped around my waist in the form of a belt, B.A.R.R.Y within it, and the yellow dust crystal showing in the center.

I will Katar to form into my hand, which up to the elbow is now free mostly, and form a very curved blade, so that I could reach and cut the ropes without needing a specific shape.

I free myself and I hear metal screeching from the other side of the door, accompanied by a yell of "Be careful with that Burn Dust you mutts!"

I wait a little, so that the screeching stops a while before I act, I form Katar into a sort of bo-staff with a single bladed side with both ends being points, and metal gauntlets, and I slice right through the door, preparing to brace an explosion practically centered on me, coating my clothing with Aura so they don't burn off.

* * *

I was simply playing chess with Terry, we'd just lay down a card and whoever had the higher value won and got both cards, not sure why Terry kept calling this game chess, there wasn't even a chess board, to find out who had to carry the prisoner's weapons away, when an explosion, well, explodes, on the other side of the base, fire spreading through the air of the immediate area, resulting in a couple minor burn victims, Roman spins around, spinning Melodic Cudgel, to finally aim at the center of the fire, but as he does so, the wind itself blows the flames out of the figure's way, a black figure with purple accents walking through the fire, and then they speak.

" **So, we meet again Roman.** " The figure speaks, ringing throughout the whole base, somehow without yelling.

"You..." Roman starts, "Yes we do, what do you want?"

" **Not much, I just heard a friend of mine got captured, what do you know of this?** "

"That girl? She got in our base, exploded something, figured we'd capture her, what do you want with her?"

" **Nothing, as I've already let her escape, along with her weapons.** " The figure spoke, gesturing to the dent in the wall which no longer had weapons beneath it.

"H- How?"

" **I have my ways, and you have yours.** "

"Well, why are you still here, why haven't you just left?"

" **So quick to turn away a guest? I'm hurt!** " The figure spoke, spinning around clutching their chest, as if they'd just been shot. " **Also, I got a little upgrade weapons wise.** " The figure spoke, slipping a blade into their gauntlet-ed hand and flipping it around behind them, still not looking at Roman.

"Still playing hero I see?"

" **Still have a concussion I see? Don't you remember how our last encounter left off? Pretty sure I'm not just 'playing' hero anymore.** " The figure spoke, and everyone in the room had a chill run down their spine, little did anyone know it was actually just the cold air in the room being moved, but they didn't need to know.

"Ugh, don't remind me, took days to straighten out my cane." Roman said, flicking the cane's sights open, to cause absolutely not response from the figure.

" **Seriously? Took me a couple seconds to make my weapons.** " The figure spoke, spinning around to cut a slice through the floor. " **The biggest trouble was the gauntlets, but it was worth it in the end.** " The figure continued, slicing full force onto their gauntlet, resulting in a loud clang that was much louder than it should have been, and didn't react at all, other than turning around again.

"What in the world is that thing made of?" Roman said, aiming his cane, and preparing to fire.

" **Wouldn't you like to know.** " The figure spoke, and in the instant Roman fired the Faunus in the room with enhanced eyesight or aura control could see a red blur shoot out from in-front of the figure, and intercept the bullet from beneath, sending it into the ceiling of the base, causing any Faunus who weren't awestruck or knocked over to start heading for the door, as a precaution.

" **Now now Roman, didn't you mother teach you it was rude to shoot at** **your friends?** " The figure spoke, as if it had just shooed a fly away.

"What are you?" Roman said, firing another flare, resulting in most of the White Fang hitting the floor.

" **I hate to reuse lines, but wouldn't you-** " The figure was cut off by the need to bat the flare away again, but this time not as high. " **Like to know?** "

"What do you want!" Roman shouted, preparing to shoot another flare.

" **Roman, do you have no concern for the lives of your underlings?** " The figure spoke, and that's when it hit Roman, all it took was one good hit and this kid could take out half the White Fang without moving from the spot, he knew how powerful his flares were, and this kid did too.

"Fine, what do you want." Roman said, lowering his cane slightly, but not fully.

" **Sorry, I should have phrased that last question better.** " The figure started. " **I should have said, do you have no concern for the lives of your employers underlings?** "

At this Roman froze, his employer? He knew that whatever the big plan was, was big, and afterwords there would be loose ends, and he knows what his employer does to loose ends. He just got his coat to stop smelling like ash from the last loose end. Was this a hitman of some sort? Was he a loose end already? He was planning to just move to Mistral or something, continue thieving there. Was that first meeting with this kid a gauging? Finding out just how much this assassin had to even bother? His main method of attack was merely swatted away like a fly...

"Let's speak in private." Roman said, surprising everyone. "And all of you, get back to work fixing this mess." Roman continued, surprising no one.

* * *

 ** _A/N_**

 ** _Whoo!_**

 ** _This is the product of 3 on-and-off days of writing, also easier to write without an eye infection and a sore throat, and a cough. My life was not well for the last few days._**

 ** _A while on the computer, a little bit on a tablet of sorts, and bit on my computer again, 1760 words, (As of only the story, not including the A/N) been a while since we've had a good sized chapter, huh?_**

 ** _What's Joakim planning? I wonder, it's not like one of the eight things I actually have planned out for this story, jotted down as either (ACRONYM) = (ACRONYM) or (ACRONYM) + (ACRONYM). I have a weird method of planning, but it works._**

 ** _Pretty sure anyone who read this saw the Spectral Raven, (I would like to thank a random google picture I saw when I was looking up the difference from a crow and a raven, also hence the giant-giant nevermore being a Raven, which said "What is a raven other than a giant crow?".) coming a mile away? Who thought it was going to be Blake?_**

 ** _I kind of did, considering I'm the author._**

 ** _Any reccomendations for this story? (Small future plot points? I'll choose anything if it fits.) Any guesses as to what I have planned? Anyone want some random one shot things that have been stuck in my head for a while?_**

 ** _Keep in mind, bold chat is either some form of emphasis, italics is a lilt of sort, mostly like with sarcasm, or entirely bold chat is any sort of omnipresent-seeming voice._**

 ** _Also, the titles are typically going to be two words focusing on two aspects of the chapter, not necessarily the whole thing of the chapter._**

 ** _For example, in this chapter, Raven isn't being Deceptive, it's that someone is being Deceptive, and there's a Raven._**

 ** _Earlier example, in that one chapter, the tree sap isn't possessed by a ghost, there was just a mention of some sort of phantom, and sap!_**

 ** _Make sure to favorite my profile and this story, so you can be alerted to updates, and everything else, I honestly forget all the functions this website has, I almost wrong "Make sure to like, subscribe and leave a comment!" So yeah._**

 ** _Be sure to (Do whatever you do on this website to show support.) and leave a review, no feedback makes it seem like I'm writing to a brick wall..._**


	22. Kill the Copycat

The room instantly filled with silence, even Roman has stopped talking, just silently leading me to a room off to the side, holding his cane as to make it clear he didn't want to fight me, holding the end away from me.

Neither of us showed any emotion that it was pointed directly at a group of White Fang playing cards.

"So Roman, why do you want to speak with me in private?" I say, once he had led me into a room, it was dimly lit, there was a desk with a computer in the corner with a really comfortable looking chair, he hung his cane up on the hat rack and proceeded to sit on the small couch that was also in the room, gesturing towards a recliner across from the couch.

"Have a seat and we can talk about this." He said, his voice holding a deeper meaning, fear perhaps?

"Sure."

"How well do you know my employer?"

"Well enough to know you have very, very good reason to be afraid." I say, blocking any emotion from seeping out into my voice.

"Okay then, so what have you come to do?" He says, with a small hint of respect, or fear, buried under the thick layer of a mask he had laid over his words.

"As I'm sure you can imagine, our mutual employer is quite busy at a time such as this, especially these last few days." I say, piecing something together.

"And yet she almost always has time to drop of the little brats." He says, giving me the information that it was a she.

"Other underlings?" I say, allowing slight curiosity to show.

"Yes, annoying every single time, not to mention just the sight of them, seriously, who has light green hair!"

Interesting.

"Who has bright orange hair?" I say.

"Point taken." He says, scooting close to the arm of the couch.

"To go back to the matter at hand, I assume you know that I'm attending Beacon, correct?"

"Yes."

"Wouldn't it be nice to know which hunters in training to watch out for, and which ones are relatively harmless?"

"Yes..." He says, drawing out the word.

"Now, I have a proposal for you."

"I sure hope you're not expecting an 'I do' after two meetings." He says, with the most smug expression a human being could have.

It didn't even phase me, at least not in comparison to the depression in the couch next to him that had just appeared.

"Ha ha ha," I say, pronouncing the words slowly instead of actually laughing. "But no, it's obvious you don't like the 'terms' of your employment, and I just want to say that our 'mutual friend' is in a situation bigger than us, but that's all I know."

"The nevermore?"

"Who else?"

"What are we supposed to do then, try and attack Cinder? She'll burn us to a crisp."

"No, I know that." I actually didn't, but that went unsaid. "Just let these things go, and I must say, your friend's semblance looks pretty useful." I say, causing the depression in the couch to disappear and Roman's face to twist into... something.

 **Through examination of a semblance, you have learned a skill, _Replicate Semblance_.**

 **Through close examination of a semblance, you have learned a _Semblance_ to _Replicate_.**

That's seems good...

"Although, I'm not exactly sure if 'look' is the right word."

"You know kid, not many people meet Neo, usually it's the other way around."

As he said this, a figure appeared beside the couch.

White boots, nearly going up to her knees, although that wasn't really saying much considering her height, black pants, something that looked like a corset, a large white and pick jacket that the front was cut high, pink and brown hair, multiple necklaces, and brown and pink eyes.

As well as a pink lattice-like umbrella, with a sword half way out of the umbrella, which doubled as a sheath.

"Well, nice to meet you Neo." I say, standing up to briefly bow, to stand back up to see Neo silently curtsy.

"She doesn't talk much, does she?" I say.

"Nope, she actually cant talk, as far as I know."

 **"He simply doesn't know, I can _'talk"_** A voice said, and I looked over to Neo who just smiled, and I had Levant send a message to her, away from Roman's ears.

 **"Yes, it was me, and yes, my illusions are not only visual, they can also be sounds, although it takes a bit more work."**

"Well, this meeting was quite interesting, but I must be on my way." I say. "Try not to die while I'm gone, and by the way, I don't really work for Cinder, and you should probably avoid sitting on soft couches when you're invisible Neo."

I Accelerate myself much faster than I ever have, and run out of there and turn back into Jo, I still have some business to take care of, and I'm sure all they saw was me just disappearing, probably too confused to give chase.

Just the way it should be.


	23. Kill the Invasion

Running back to Beacon, I decided to look over my skills and the equipment I got.

 **[Acceleration (Active) LV2 - EXP:25.00%]**

 **Through channeling Mana through yourself, you can speed up everything about you, and with intense focus, everything around you.**

 **More Mana cost for faster levels of Acceleration.**

 **[Summon Elemental (Passive) LV1 - EXP 50.00%]**

 **Increases the general power of an elemental on your side.**

 **[Manifest Elemental (Passive) LV1 - EXP 50.00%]**

 **Allows you to manifest an elemental, allowing them a physical presence, and to use their own power off of your general thoughts, rather than your specific orders.**

 **[Air Elemental (Passive) LV3 - EXP 68.00%]**

 **Having summoned an Air Elemental they can control the Air in various ways, using your power** ** _Unless Manifested_** **to control it.**

 **Higher levels allow higher control, as well as lower costs.**

 **Differing Mana cost for what form of control you use.**

 **[Replicate Semblance (Passive/Active) LV1 - EXP 00.00%]**

 **Through extensive Aura control, and sometimes specified training, anyone can replicate a semblance, if only to a lesser extent than the actual semblance.**

 **{Illusion LV1}**

 **Illusions are a common type of semblance, altering any person(s) perception of the world around them, and yet are still varied.**

 **Alteration Illusion LV1**

 **A specific semblance, used to alter the world entirely, if only to a tiny extent,but to everyone, visibly and sometimes Audibly, with some practice.**

 **Higher Mana cost for size of illusion, or volume of an Audible illusion.**

 **{Divine LV1}**

 **True Self LV10 - Own Semblance**

 **An ability bestowed upon you specifically, releasing your inner self, whatever form that may be.**

 **Holy Flame LV3 - Own Semblance**

Very very useful, True Self must be when I transform into Jo, I must have a bonus due to it being my actual semblance, and Holy Flame must be that fire thing, and Alteration Illusion must be what Neo was doing, or a sub-version of it or something.

Lenore and Dreary Midnight don't really have descriptions, but Lenore actually gave me eyes, gave me the four eyes of a nevermore, my vision turns to about 20/5, and slightly highlights Aura, it was kind of weird to look around with four eyes, and according to Blake, even aside from the mask and the cloak, even what wasn't covered was kind of 'foggy' and my hair had changed shade slightly, closer towards black, and all the effects ended just as I took them off.

I still wonder why that Burn Dust just exploded, I doubt the White Fang would have volatile Dust sitting around, could it have been trapped?

I am glad I Accelerated Blake out of there, it took a lot less than I expected, probably because it was only for a second or two.

Speaking of, I should probably put some points into WIS or INT, it seems I'll be using a lot of Mana.

 **Through thinking things through rationally, you have gained 1 INT point.**

Interesting... Should probably run back to Beacon faster though, slightly Accelerated of course.

* * *

"Jo! You're back!" I hear, when I finally leap over the edge of Beacon, to see Blake running towards me from behind a tree, just before leaping into the tree briefly to grab my old Cloak and Mask. "Quick, put these in your inventory thing, and follow me, Beacon was put under lock-down, something to do with that Nevermore."

"Okay, what's going on?"

"Pretty sure it's fine, Ozpin just announced that we all had to get in the Dorm building, he might come by to ask if anyone knows about it.

"Go ahead, I'll go talk to Ozpin on my own, tell him it's fine, he may have lost some cameras due to the Nevermore crashing."

"Okay, just don't do anything stupid."

"Really Blake? You have to tell ME to be careful and not be stupid?"

"That's exactly why I'm telling you that."

* * *

I run and climb the outside of the spire Ozpin's office was near the top of, it's always a rush to run down the side of it.

Just to notice that all but one window actually had glass in, so I went invisible for kicks, and dove in the window, rolling to a stop in the middle of the office, just to see the back of Ozpin's chair, a small tuft of grey hair visible, and a box of tools in the corner, as well as a pane of glass leaning on the wall, but no one actually working, so I stop being invisible, and walk towards Ozpin's chair, stopping just to the side of it, but still behind it.

"Did you think you could sneak up behind me, Jo Arc?" He says, drinking a cup of coffee.

"I wasn't sneaking, what, do you think I was gonna attack or something? I know you'd kill me with that Coffee cup before I even draw my sword." I say, having no doubt he could.

"You killed that Raven, didn't you?" More coffee.

"I can't believe you'd ask that. C'mon, you should get to know how I get when a challenge appears, I live for this stuff."

"You remind me of an old friend."

"I think you can say that to anyone, in your position I imagine you have millions of 'old friends', the only question is if they were actually friends or not."

"Hmmph." Ozpin Hmmph-ed. "What if you died right then?"

"What, don't you know how strong I am? I was confident I couldn't lose." I said, and as soon as I saw Ozpin's left hand, the one with the coffee cup, move, I activated Acceleration to the most I could at the time, as Sense Danger had gone off and it was wailing in terror, and his hand kept moving at a casual pace, even as the single displaced drop in the air was just floating there, he smashed the cup on the left armrest of his chair, all the while spinning to the left of the chair to face me, his face was blank, as usual, but with a slight smirk, as he charged me wielding the now-sharp handle of the Coffee Cup, I pushed myself to move as fast as I could, to draw my sword and block it, as my shield would be too cumbersome for such a quick strike, getting the flat of the blade in the way just in time, the handle clinking against the metal, Ozpin standing parallel to me with his arm extended, as if he had just swatted away a fly at five hundred miles per hour, he slowly lowered his hand, the coffee still suspended in air with how fast my perception of the world was, and then I remembered I was pouring all my Mana I could into Acceleration, and I dispelled it.

"That was nicely blocked, your confidence is well earned, however. Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer."

"Thank you, and I will remember that, it helps to know that at my fastest, I can barely block your attack while you're holding back." I say, as he relaxes and moves around to sit down in the chair once again.

"Now, back to business, I assume you're here to ask why Beacon is still on lock down, despite the Raven being dead, aren't you?"

"Insightful as always. Yes I am, why do all the students have to stay in the Dorm building?"

"As you may suspect, typically Grimm of that size do not usually venture this close to the city, or anywhere near this close. The thing is, reports say that there are more on the way, do you know what this means?"

"They're planning an assault, aren't they?"

"Yes they are, and Vale is not prepared."

* * *

 ** _Wizard Of here, another chapter now that my throat is no longer crying out in pain, and my eye's aren't either, mostly just want to say that some of this was a parallel to another thing, and if people guess what it is (Or I get bored waiting.) I will make a One Off based on that, and that The Gamer thing is mostly from now going to be more a general statement of power, than a specific measurement system like in other stories._**


	24. Kill the Briefing

"What do you mean not prepared, won't the city defenses take care of this?" I say

"They will try, but the defenses were built to take care of Ursa, maybe a Goliath if we were lucky, but reports say this assault team has Titans."

"Titans?"

"The name for the 'giant' version of the Goliath's, much like the Raven is the giant version of the Nevermore."

"What do we do then? Send Hunters to intercept them?"

"Yes, that is exactly what we do, we will send many hunters, and you."

"Why me?"

"You took down that Raven, did you not?"

"I did."

"You took down that Raven within seconds of engaging it, did you not?"

"I did."

"Raven's are commonly considered at least S rank Grimm, give or take a rank, mostly give."

"So?"

"The rest of aspiring hunters your age are fighting Ursai and Beowolves, at the most a Deathstalker or Nevermore, and these are all below B rank Grimm, the Raven is an S rank."

"Okay, so just because I killed an S rank Grimm,"

"Decimated it."

"Fine, decimated an S rank Grimm, you want me to fight a horde of S rank Grimm, maybe even higher ranks?"

"Yes, I saw the footage, I think it may have something to do with your Grimm DNA or whatever it is."

"What?"

"The Raven didn't pay any attention to you, apart from when you were literally a high speed object shooting towards it, and when you were cutting into it's wings, and even then it seemed confused, I think the Grimm see you as one of their own."

"Seriously?"

"Do you have evidence otherwise? This is an extremely valuable ability for a Hunter to have, never before have people thought of covert operations into Grimm territory, but with you, we could."

"So, I have to go to a point, meet with a bunch of fully trained hunters, and defend Vale against a force that would otherwise surely wipe it off the map?"

"In a basic sense, yes. That is what I'm asking you to do."

"Okay, I will, where do I go?"

"The location of the Grimm horde, which we are tracking all the while, will be marked on your scroll's map as a red marker, and the meeting point will be a green marker."

"Okay, anything else I should know?"

"You can't be Rythian or Jo, Rythian is too suspicious a character as it is, and Jo is supposed to be in the lock-down area, I'm sure you don't want people to start searching your history for anything suspicious, would you?"

"That makes sense, so what, do I go as the Phantom Nevermore?"

"Naturally, it will also give you a chance to 'cut loose' as the term is, because as Rythian you won't be able to use the Holy Flame without being suspicious, and as Jo you cant use your weapon of choice, Katar, but with this, you could use both."

"That would be pretty nice."

"Now that's settled, I think you should be on your way, don't you agree? The window installment crew is just coming back from lunch."

"Yes, I do agree, I'll go there immediately."

I bow slightly, before rushing towards the open window and pouring Aura into a leap, subtly controlling the Air around me with Levant to leap entirely out of the bounds of Beacon, and equipping Dreary Midnight and Lenore mid-flight, and turning back into Rythian.

 **Through moving a small distance in a flash, literally, you have created the skill** ** _Flash Step._**

That seems nice.

A small circular window appears in my vision, a white arrow in the center of the circle on a blue background, the background is moving very fast over what looks like a map of a park or something, before cutting off into a bunch of lines probably representing a thick treeline, a red dot on the bottom right of the circle, a green dot directly on the bottom, the top of the circle has a white N with an arrow pointing above the N, and below it the usual Health and Mana bar that would usually be there, but that circle...

A minimap,

and I leaped in the entirely opposite direction of where I need to go.

I turn back, and I can see Ozpin standing in the window looking directly at me, with Lenore's improved vision I can tell he's smiling slightly.

I turn the Air solid below me, shifting my body into a standing position, my foot hits the solidified air and I push off upwards, I solidify the air under my feet until I did a U-Turn in mid air, looking like I'm running upside down back towards the tower, after a short twist Dreary Midnight opens and catches the air, and I start gliding, relaxing my body while still gliding to get the Mana regeneration from Rest to just barely offset the cost, as I pass the Tower of Beacon, I glance to my side to see Ozpin with a full smile, nodding in my direction.

Man he can see fast.

* * *

After a while of gliding, I came to a camp of sorts, some tents set up on the top of a cliff, and a large table with papers laying on it.

Well, time to make an entrance.

I stop resting, I will the air to catch Dreary Midnight more, resulting in a flip to slow down, and the Air softly letting me down near the head of the table where no one is sitting.

"Who are you?" A man with black hair and grey on the sides spoke, wearing a blue coat with a white suit over it, with a small metal plate on his forehead, putting his hands on the table to stand up.

"Does it matter? I'm not going to attack you, and I'm going to be fighting alongside you, so who cares. Right?" I say.

"This guy has a point, Jimmy." Someone else at the table says, a man with slightly greying hair, a white coat with a short red cloak, sitting back drinking from a flask with his boots on the table, much to the chagrin of practically everyone else at the table. "He clearly isn't attacking us, if he was going to he would have done it already, he surprised practically all of us, didn't he? If he missed that opportunity and still tries to kill us, he's clearly just stupid."

"Fine Qrow, but my point still stands, who are you?"

"Short version or long version?"

"Short."

"Nevermore"

At this, someone sitting across from Jimmy, a woman wearing another white coat (Seriously, how can so many people wear white coats!) with a blue undershirt and white hair tied in a bun with blue eyes, obviously a Schnee, stood up.

"As in, The Phantom Nevermore?"

"Yes."

Her eyes shot open, staring at nothing in particular, as if remembering something, and then spoke with a slightly different voice, obviously quoting someone else.

 _"Here it is, the longed-for gem,_

 _I'm sure you had your suspicions, it was them,_

 _I tracked it down, and brought it back,_

 _In what you could call an attack,_

 _Below the broken moon I soar,_

 _I am the Phantom Nevermore."_

"I guess that means you found the note Winter Schnee? It took such a long time to write that note, I probably could have dropped the Rhyme Scheme, but where's the fun in that?"

"Winter," Jimmy spoke. "What do you mean? Have you met this _Nevermore_ before?"

"Not particularly, General Ironwood, lately a highly pure, almost entirely pure, Schnee Dust crystal was stolen by the White Fang, but one day, an employee had found it back in one of the warehouses in the middle of the room, with a note attached to it." Winter Schnee said.

"So, Winter, do you trust this Phantom Nevermore?" Jimmy Ironwood said, strange name now that I think about it.

"Well, I do not know of his combat abilities, but he obviously isn't with The White Fang or anything, because Weiss and her team had gone to a White Fang warehouse to try to get it, but The Phantom Nevermore already had it, and all the White Fang were already incapacitated." Winter said.

"Very well then, he shall assist in this attack. Nevermore, do you know what we're fighting here?"

"Not exactly General Jimmy Ironwood, but I know it's a very strong horde of Grimm planning to assault Vale."

"General... Jimmy... QROW!" He said, looking back towards a now-empty seat, with only an empty flask on the seat, before retiring to one of the tents.

"Nevermore, General Ironwood's name is actually James, I'm Winter Schnee, as you probably know, and that Drunkard is Qrow Branwen." Winter said.

"Oh, sorry then, so, are there any more introductions?" I say, looking at three seperate people who had not been introduced yet, as well as Qrow peeking around the side of a tent and almost stumbling, having four eyes is still kind of weird.

"Well, this is Taiyang Xiao Long, he is a Hunter-"

"Was a Hunter." Taiyang says.

"Yes, was a Hunter, but was still called in due to the stakes of this mission, this is Shae Amara, another Hunter, but is also quite a good smith, metal and dustworking." Winter says, gesturing to a pink haired woman with light brown boots with shin-guards on them, an armor plated skirt, a red long sleeved shirt with a large bow that hangs down to knee level, and armor over their chest left shoulder and hands.

"You came at a good time Nevermore," Taiyang said. "We were just about to go over the plans we already have again, so we don't have to repeat ourselves, so we'll get back to that as soon as Ironwood calms down, and Qrow gets... at least a little more sober."

"Well, I look forward to fighting alongside you, but from the look of his Aura, Qrow probably won't be sober for another year or so." I say, watching as Qrow's aura wisps around the place, practically none of it near him.

"Wait, how can you see Aura?" Winter said.

I tap one of my top-eyes, expecting it to be the same as if it was just a mask, but it feels like I actually just poked myself in the eye, I clutch my face, in my other three eyes I see I lost 4 HP,

"Oum damn it that was stupid!"

* * *

 _ **Wizard Of here with another chapter, still waiting on what I took inspiration from with Levant/Lenore/Dreary midnight, and what I based Ozpin and Rythian's little encounter last chapter on.**_

 _ **And a new one, Who does Shae Amara look like? (It's not Shae or Amara or Shae Amara, that's just a name I came up with, as her name would give it away.)**_

 _ **Please remember to follow and leave a review, and if you do leave a review, leave any guesses to these questions there, I'll post in the next chapter (Next one I write after noticing, not the next chapter after this one.)**_


	25. Kill the Family Reunion

"Okay, now that's over with, let's get to re-stating the current plans." Ironwood said, after Qrow sat down he had walked back out of the tent. "Currently, the Grimm forces are stampeding in this direction, most of the landscape is forests with fairly flat land, until they reach this cliff."

"I think we should send a squad to intercept them mid-way." Winter says. "I don't know who yet, but we should definitely not wait here so they can walk that whole way un-contested. The squad should be a small squad, and those of us that can move quickly, no matter how much total damage they can inflict. Those of us not in the Assault Team will set up a defensive line on the cliff."

"This seems like a good idea, by tomorrow we should send out the Assault Team." Ironwood said. "For starters, Taiyang, Elec, Ray, and Mica will be in the Assault Team."

"I agree, however we don't know where to put you yet, Nevermore." Winter says, turning to look at me.

"Well, I've never really defended a point, but I can move fast and hit faster." I say, Flash Stepping to the right a little to prove my point, no effect other than losing a couple MP points, not that anyone here could see that. "Essentially, we would want everyone with a high DPS and a high speed, to wreak havoc within the enemy lines before they even know what's going on."

"DPS?" Ironwood says.

"Damage Per Second, that's what DPS means General, it's a gaming term." Shae says. "Typically the average damage a person can do within a second, be it by adding lots of small strikes or by dividing the damage of a single large strike."

"Okay, I agree with that statement, but how do we know the Grimm will be surprised, won't they just go to their instincts, and fight the first Aura signature they see with no further thought?" Ironwood says.

"Well, they are clearly mounting an assault, an effort that requires some level of intelligence, which means these Grimm, atleast the larger ones, as they may have Adds-"

"Smaller monsters typically in a large number assisting a larger monster." Shae says, helpfully.

"Thank you, they may have Adds which may just be blindly marching towards us, but the larger Grimm must have some large amount of intelligence, unless there is a Grimm Commander or something." I finish.

"An interesting train of thought. Although I think I should share a new piece on Intel." Winter says, and a weirdly star shaped drone thing flies out from one of the tents, before showing a picture of the forest from an aerial view in the air from the front of where the two star shapes collide. "As you can see, there are the normal Grimm, hordes of larger than normal Beowulves, droves of Ursai, some Death-stalkers, and notably some 'Giant' verities of them, but look at this." And the picture changed to a 2D picture, areas covered in colors. "The colors start at white, meaning things like Beowulfs and Creep and generally weak Grimm. But the darker the color, the more powerful Grimm, Alpha Ursai, Deathstalkers, and the like, but here in red, are the Titans, the 'giant' Goliaths." And she gestures to the screen again, and those colors form a formation, the red around a very small dot of purple, the colors going black and then lightening up the further you got from it.

"They're in a diamond formation, and we can't get a clear look at the middle to see what they're protecting, right?" I say.

 **Through recognizing a formation, you have gained the skill** ** _Large Scale Planning_** **.**

"Yes, they seem to be moving as if protecting some form of VIP or something, but we have no idea what it is." Winter confirms, and the drone flies back into the tent.

"Well, this is getting interesting, I could go ahead with a camera or something, I could run in quickly." I said.

"It would be a strange way to do things, but it could work." Ironwood said. "We definitely need to see what the Grimm would consider an object to protect."

"Here is the camera." Winter said, and the drone flew back out of the tent and into my hand. "The front of the Ghost is the camera, make sure not to cover it when looking at the object of interest."

"Well, here I go." I make Katar into a sort of headband on my head, the 'straps' going between my four eyes and in the middle there is a place for the 'Ghost' drone to sit, slightly surprising everyone at the table. I take a bow folding one arm to my stomach before Flash Stepping into a jump towards the point that had just appeared on my map.

 **Quest Accepted.**

 **[Repel The Assault]**

 **Repel The Grimm Assault [0/? steps completed]**

 **Step 1.**

 **Knowledge is half the battle.**

 **Record footage of the Object Of Interest the Grimm are protecting [0/1]**

And the point just happened to be off the cliff, so I just leaped off the cliff and began to glide.

* * *

After a bit of gliding, I began to see the horde of black moving through the forest. A lot of Beowulfs, some larger than others, Lots of Ursai... many Deathstalkers, and some Nevermores, Neveremores? Nevermore? Is it like Deer? Who knows? Probably Ozpin, he probably knows. And some Goliaths, stampeding trees out of the way, and then four Titans, standing in a diamond formation, marching onward. Going invisible again, seriously wondering how I can do this, it hasn't translated to a skill... it doesn't use any Mana or anything. Weird.

Diving to the middle of the Titans, I slow to a stop, to land behind a long legged figure, legs literally twice as tall as their torso, clad in black armor with red accents, made of overlapping plates, large shoulder pads, the helmet featuring breathing slits and a small slit to see through, as well as a black metal horn protruding from it's forehead, it's boots have claws on their heels, and wielding a set of black metal claws attached to the armor's gauntlets.

It was The Hero's Shade.

He was the object of interest.

He was Grimm.

But he didn't notice me yet.

I take the 'Ghost' drone out of the holster, and I got a few angles, they didn't stop me when I flew away, or tell me what to do, so I assume they were just filming the whole time.

"Hello Newling." He says. "You've been rising up from the bottom quite fast, since I doubt you've kept up with the news."

I flick the 'Ghost' up into the sky, and it quickly flies back towards the cliff.

"I have no intention of 'Rising Up' so I don't really care, Do you have a real name?"

"It's a little earlier than expected, but I'm Hannes Hellstrand, The Black Knight."

And then my life fell apart.

* * *

 **Wizard Of here. Woo! Main plotline! The Grimm have a pecking order! Killing the Raven got our friend here a little street-cred! We find out what happened to Joakim's brother! Well, that happens next chapter, but I think you can piece things together anyways! Winter has a Ghost! (That was just so I could cheap out a bit on the Drone design to be honest.)**

 **Remember, Favorite, Follow, Review... I think that's it. Leave a review of anything, small plot holes I may have glossed over (or implied loosely.) Criticism, any kind, but no "This is bad." End of review, you know?**

 **Well, contact you next time of DRAGON B- Ahem, OPERATION BLACKROCK!**


	26. Kill the Black Knight Battle

"What, you look surprised, you haven't seen any proof of my death, I know that much Joakim." Hannes said, "And you should not be so quick to assume."

"So, you were in Operation Blackrock as well, huh?" I say, trying to appear calm, appearances are important, even outside of any gatherings.

"Yes, I was the first subject, according to them, they infused too much Grimm into me."

 _Day 100, Subject 1 is still expressing large outbursts of anger and concern when Subject 2 is mentioned, it is unknown if this is simply due to familial relations between the subjects, or a side effect of Operation Blackrock. Authority has forbidden us from letting either subject wake up from now on._

That report I had glanced over, this meant Hannes was Subject 1, and I was Subject 2.

"I can see that, so, I assume this is going to be a fight? Because I'm not going to join you." I say.

"Well, it appears that is the case."

"Make sure the Grimm don't interfere, let's make this a duel." I say.

"Alright then." Hannes says, and the four Titans stomp downwards, felling all the trees around us, at least the ones that weren't already destroyed, meanwhile I activate Spirit Of Order, since the last time I used it I had leveled up a lot, meaning Spirit Of Order leveled up a lot, apparently I had reached rank A, meaning instead of a Paladin I became a White Knight, the helmet was sleeker, less space taken up by eye-slits and breathing holes, but that didn't physically change anything, the "Horn" had moved to the top of my head, and small stylized wings had appeared on the sides of the helmet, rising upwards, every part of the armor became 'sharper', the shoulder pads became larger, blocking more area, the 'cuffs' that used to be on my elbows sprouted purple feathers on the outside, same with the area where my shoulders met my neck, and the back of my neck, the designs had become much more complex and intricate, curling around each other as if the armor was covered with tall-growing-flowers fighting over many fence-posts, between the metal waistcoat where it was just grey material before, it became purple, and a cloth piece, which was actually cloth, appeared with more criss-crossing designs, but with more order to it, and that too, was purple.

"Begin!" We both shout at the same time.

Quickly activating Acceleration, quite a lot, to gauge the Dark Knight's speed, he moves at a level that once I adjust the level of Acceleration, to be a bit faster than him, I can still fight at for a good while.

He lunges at me swinging his right hand claw to the left and downwards towards my chest, he almost hits me because I was busy adjusting my Acceleration, but I step into his guard before he hits, forming Katar into a pair of blades currently sheathed on my back, the handles over my shoulder, the end of each blade just below my waist, and off to the side, I chose two swords so the Dual Wielding skill would be used, as I could use the passive speed bonus to get that little extra edge, and the normal Sword Mastery also applies, and has a small speed bonus, as "Attack Speed" apparently just means how fast I can move the weapon, which also pretty useful for parrying and even blocking.

Seeing I've stepped into his guard Hannes simply hops backwards, which is more to my profit than his, as I haven't even drawn my weapons yet.

Although, now I have.

He says in a defensive stance, claws ready to block any attacks from the front, assuming he can see them, that is, I flash step just behind him, but I know he can still see me, just like I can see out of every inch of my armor, he probably can too, but with a small surge of Acceleration, I beat him to the slice, although forgetting to Power Strike, but still marking the back of his armor with a perfect cut, but it just re-forms after the blade passes through, hell, WHILE the blade is passing through, with the bonuses from Lenore still active, I can tell that it's the rest of him, be it flesh or whatever, has some sort of quick regenerating properties, but it probably requires a small connection in order to re-form, and just cutting didn't seem to cut it, as it just regenerated behind the blade.

He jolts forwards reacting to the stab, one of his five health bars wrapping around his left side, my right once he turns around, dips a little, but quickly regenerates.

"So, you think you're fast huh? We'll see about that!" He says slowly, as I'm accelerated, not actually naturally fast, so everything else seems slow, this would probably be pretty useful in Oobleck's class now I think about it...

He speeds up, and I do too, upping my Mana drain just a little bit, he spins and lunges at me, slicing with both blades towards each other, only to meet nothing, not even air resistance.

I had jumped, and controlled the air to let his blades pass through faster than he would have expected, putting him slightly off balance, even more so when a sudden mysterious gust of wind pushes him backwards a little, right underneath me at the peak of my jump, falling down, pushing my feet downwards with the wind, I slice with both blades in a scissor motion, aiming to cut him in half, but I only skim his arm, as he had tried to dodge, my blades meeting each other in the middle of his arm, what little I managed to hit, before I realize something.

It didn't regenerate.

It was cut from both sides, meaning there was less time for the material to regenerate, resulting in a successful total sever, of a tiny bit of skin, but it was a start.

That, and the Health Bar actually stayed where it had been put, which wasn't very far down, but it wasn't regenerating.

He seemed to notice as well, speeding up even more, and if he had a face, he would have probably been smiling before hand, but he wasn't now, judging by the fact he didn't spout a one-liner, like he used to do every time we played Knights and Beowolves.

Accelerating to match, I notice I couldn't keep this up for very long, it would be only a couple minutes until my Mana hit zero.

But luckily for me, each real minute gave me about thirty to deal with, in my little time-distortion thing.

You know, whoever programmed this skill should have made it not slow down the Mana drain...

He lunged at me again, faster than both other times, slicing with his left arm, left-wards and up, but aligning my right blade so that it slides along, assisted a little thanks to me moving the sword to push the claw aside, he misses, and his whole body is twisted to his right, his back perfectly open for a strike, stabbing him in the back with my right blade, making the left blade follow in an attempt to sever his lower half from the top, or the top from the bottom, whichever, but his right arm bends around his back, kind of terrifyingly as arms shouldn't be able to do that, the claw fits around my right blade and starts to twist, seeing what he's trying to do, I un-form the blade and immediately feel the boost from Dual Wielding dissapear, but I form the blade back again quickly, and simply accept the new opening of his left arm, severing it at the elbow, black tendrils briefly scour the air in an attempt to fuse back together, but his arm starts dissipating like Grimm do, and the tendrils settle on just blocking up the arm, making it seem like a years-old injury, where the skin had already grown over it, but Hannes rolls to his right, feeling the pain, probably, as one and a half health bars drop down, leaving him with three and a half-ish.

"Lucky shot, I'm just getting started." Hannes growled, his voice becoming deeper and more garbled.

"Good, because I'm just getting started too." I said.

I totally wasn't, this was about as good as I could be, unless I just accelerated more.

I had a small doubt, and a thought.

I wasn't ready.

* * *

 **A/N Wooo! A main-story battle! I think Rythian has the upper hand, considering he hasn't really used his aura yet..**

 **Oh wait, that was supposed to be revealed next chapter.**

 **Oh well, it's okay, I can live with that.**

 **In the meantime, MY FIRST MULTI-CHAPTER BATTLE! (I think atleast, one of the others may have been over multiple chapters, which really takes away from the picture of this one...)**

 **NO MATTER! THIS SHALL BE THE BEST FIGHT TO DATE!**

 **WELL! ATLEAST IN TEXT FORM!**

 **AND IN THIS FIC SPECIFICALLY!**

 **THAT REALLY ISN'T SAYING MUCH, I'VE JUST REALIZED!**

 **THIS JOKE IS GOING ON FOR LIKE FIVE LINES TOO MANY!**

 **FAREWELL THEN!**

 **TALK TO YOU NEXT CHAPTER!**

 **WELL NOT TALK!**

 **THAT WOULD BE WEIRD!**

 **I CAN'T HACK INTO YOUR SPEAKERS AND TALK TO YOU!**

 **MY POINT IS!**

 **FAREWELL MY READERS!**

 **AND YES, I'VE REWORKED THE TITLES TO A RUNNING JOKE!**


	27. Kill the Big Brother

After our little exchange, Hannes' claws on his remaining arm retracted, forming a single sword, the Black Knight was fighting much faster, I had to use Flash Step multiple times just to dodge, I started making small illusions of my blade moving in different directions to distract him, but he caught on, I was definitely on the back foot here, but I had discovered one thing when I didn't manage to dodge or block, his sword cut straight through my arm, a last ditch effort to stop the blade heading for my head, it slowed the blade down enough it couldn't break through my helmet, but my arm had been cut at the forearm, making me drop the sword in my right hand, but then I realized I hadn't lost any HP, I was at a perfect full bar.

And then the HP went down.

And then my arm came back.

Definitely interesting, but not dwelling on the subject, I dodge another strike, having to Flash Step to move, he was fast, faster than anyone I'd fought, but I could be faster if I really pushed myself, I could be much, much faster.

Pushing Acceleration to what I thought would be pretty damn fast, I charged once again.

Now, I didn't really feel any different, but I knew it worked, he had slowed down intensely, to the level of relative speed that happens when I Flash Step, which was really cool, but I couldn't hold this up for much longer, a minute at the best.

And then I pushed Acceleration even further.

And he stopped, everything stopped, an Oxygen Bar even appeared in my vision as I had trouble breathing, with the air not moving and all, because I couldn't spare to cover the air in this level of Acceleration.

And I sliced, and sliced, and then a couple more times.

And each slice was two, as I was wielding both blades beside eachother, as if the sword split into two halfway down the blade.

Once horizontally just above the waist, once just below the shoulder, which happened to also cut through the torso diagonally, once to the legs, one at the neck, and then one cut vertically straight through the middle, all Power Strikes as well, and his HP dropped insane amounts, he was down to one health bar, much less even, maybe a couple HP to spare, he was still alive.

But I couldn't move an inch, I felt my Acceleration deactivate, and I saw.

 **Mana Empty! Mana Empty! Mana Empty!**

Man, not even low Mana, just empty, nothing left but the armor on my body and the swords in my hands, and I literally couldn't move.

And then I forgot, he could regenerate on the tiniest strand of fiber holding him together, and none of those strikes were from both sides, so there was a good chance that he-

He would regenerate.

And he did, he was back together, the only evidence anything had happened was that he seemed to slouch quite a lot, using his sword as a cane, Actually, he had turned it into a cane, if canes typically also had spearheads on the end.

And he walked over to me.

"Impressive Joakim, that was impressive, one second I had cut your arm off, and the next I was nearly in pieces, and you were exhausted. This wouldn't have happened in Knights and Beowolves, would it?" He said. "Well, the Beowulf never really got a sword either, although I still think you should have made a second sword."

"Are you going to patronize me, or are you going to lay down and die? You're clearly on your last breath, hopefully literally." I say, watching the MP count up one by one, apparently lying on the floor tired doesn't count as rest, who knew?

"Well, you exerted too much of your power in one burst, it doesn't take a healthy person to execute a defenseless person." Hannes said. "Now, you are going to die, and then I'll kill everyone, starting with killing your friends at beacon, **Personally.** " He finished, finally hobbling over to me.

"You're following the wrong path Hannes, you could save people! You could have just called off all the Grimm! Just told them to not fight!"

And he started laughing. "Oh, that's precious, The General wouldn't be too happy with that." The General? "Now, you can obviously regenerate, so I'll just have to strike your heart directly, there is no way to train your heart to be invincible, and they did not replace it with Grimm." He finished, lining up the spear just above my heart. "Don't feel bad for losing, you were just too weak."

Noticing my armor was still on, however, I realized, it was only my Mana which was out.

And I was much angrier than I have ever been.

"Weak, you say." A laugh. "Just, who THE **HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!** " I screamed, as my Aura exploded outward, erupting in white flame, burning Hannes alive, and it kept going, and going, and going, further and further, as the Titans clearly became angry, and started charging into the fire, intent on finishing me off.

And then they just dissolved, turning into white embers, before joining the already-huge burst of Holy Flame, which kept growing, only destroying Grimm, and going, until it finally stopped, the top of the dome tall enough to fit twelve Titan's on top of each other, and the diameter proportionate, the only thing other than the forest in the area was me, as The Phantom Nevermore, exhausted entirely, and yet without a cut on my body.

"I'm sorry Hannes, I couldn't keep my promise." I started crying, tears falling out of all four eyes. "I couldn't keep my promise, but then again, neither could you." And I fell unconscious, apart from one aspect.

 **Total Exhaustion**

* * *

 **Hey guys, Wizard Of here, and I don't think this chapter needs Author Notes...**


	28. Kill the Counterattack

My eyes shoot open after a while, I'm not sure how long, perhaps hours, maybe minutes, and I awake to the sound of fighting.

And, of course, quite a lot of Ding's, signifying me leveling up, about five times, it only seemed to count Hannes as a kill, because titans definitely would have given me more, I suppose it's because I hadn't been fighting the titans, they just... died in the crossfire.

Putting some points into intelligence and wisdom, raising them to 50 each, and then a couple points in Dexterity to get faster, in order to increase Mana regeneration and total, as well as anything else that came with Wis and Int.

And, I got a couple skills,

 **Nature Affinity (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%**

 **Man was born from dust, and in time, dust was used to burn back the darkness of the Grimm, and give way to light and prosperity. This skill increases the user's affinity and sensitivity to these forces, improving their affinity with the elements.**

 **25% increase in Mana recovery rate.**

 **10% increase to Elemental and Dust Attack.**

 **10% increase to Elemental and Dust Resistances.**

 **50% increase to Elemental and Dust Utility Usage.**

 **Mana Affinity (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%**

 **Man was born from dust, and in time, they discovered the light of their own selves, to burn back the darkness of the Grimm, and give way to light and prosperity. This skill increases the user's sensitivity and control over Aura.**

 **10% Increase in Mana Recovery Rate.**

 **5% Increase in total MP.**

 **5% Increase to Magic Attack.**

 **5% Increase to Magic Defense.**

 **30% Increase in Magic Utility Usage.**

 **Amazing Grace (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%**

 **An ability given to those with in depth knowledge of the specific muscles and joints within their own bodies. The user possesses refined control and coordination, displaying elegance within every movement.**

 **50% Increase to Movement Speed.**

 **30% Increase to Attack Speed.**

 **10% Increase to Evasion.**

 **30% Increase to Dexterity Utility Usage.**

That... was amazing, simply for the fact that these are percentages, and as such could improve things greatly, because 10% of 10 is just one, but 10% of 100?

That was good.

But Mana Affinity, is said it was Aura, but MP isn't Aura which was strange, whatever it implied.

And Amazing Grace, that must have been due to the update, because my DEX was at 50 before the update, but I hadn't gotten the skill until now.

"Winter! My threads are being unraveled! The Grimm are closing in!" I hear shouting.

"Okay, hold the line, these Grimm can't reach the walls!" Winter starts, calmly, but quite loud. "Look, The Nevermore's woken up, Taiyang, make sure he can fight."

Standing up, I re-form Katar, which had somehow gotten back inside my coat, back into a sort of underlaying vest, just in case.

"Nevermore, you were out for a while, I assume that was your attack's doing, it looked pretty draining, long story short, the whole main invasion force was killed, but all the Grimm for miles have come running, even the ones that weren't originally charging, we can't let them group up, they might form another invasion force."

"Okay, I'll fight." I say, surveying the area, seeing a book, a coat, and a scarf on the ground, probably drops from Hannes, which no one was paying attention to, in fact, Qrow had just walked through the stack of items getting into position. "It's the least I can do after basically saying 'hey, everyone, here's a pretty awesome guy, just kind of awesome in general, he would be an awesome challenge to fight."

Taiyang burst into laughter. "That's what I like to hear, the temporary barriers and defenses we've set up are wearing thin, the Grimm will enter this clearing soon."

"Well," I say, cracking my neck, and looking around, seeing a variety of hunters forming a perimeter, and slightly shimmering lines around the forest, all subtly leading back to one hunter's gloves. "Time to fight I guess."

* * *

The first thing to break the treeline was a lot of Beowolves, a practically unending wave, most of the other hunters had it covered, so I just quickly picked up the book, coat, and scarf, the book was a skill book, and the scarf, and coat, as expected, were equipment, after putting them in my inventory quickly, I just sat back and watched the battle, bullets flashing, a boomerang flying through the air... and exploding into a fiery explosion, then bouncing back into another Beowulf, and turning into a rock just before impact, and smashing the Beowulf's head in, a knife flying, stabbing into a Beowulf's eye, and being pulled back to the Hunter's hand by a thin string, dragging the Grimm into a slash by another hunter, they were probably a team at some point, figures sprinting between the Grimm, and Grimm falling apart in various ways.

Soon, the Ursa and Boarbatusks came, with more Beowolves as well, A few Ursa managed to get through the front line defense, and I quickly Flash Stepped in and cut through them, before hiding Katar again at a decent speed- well, for someone who was in a highly accelerated perception of time, at least- and Flash Stepped back, receiving a couple of quick nods of respect, the String Hunter was weaving weapons out of fiber, sometimes a sword, sometimes it unraveled and was woven into a spear, thrown, and... expanded, the individual aura-infused fibers shooting outwards from the spear, tearing Grimm apart, and retracted again, going through pin-hole holes in metal claws attached to gloves, the fibers reeling back into mini-reels on the back of his gloves, and some following a thin path over the back of his glove, winding under his jacket and around to a giant reel attached to his back under his green jacket, which glowed like a bright light, at least to my ability to see Aura.

Some particularly large Death-Stalkers finally showed up, Hunter's changing their focus to fight them, two fell in moments, but another had more armor plating than most, the notable weak points probably covered by armor, unlike the others that had weak points.

Good thing I didn't focus on weak points, and instead just Flash Stepped into a punch, empowered with Power Strike as well as my multipliers and stat points.

And broke my hand, by hand shooting back into my arm, probably due to Flash Stepping within something, but then I spent my HP, and my fist just 'appeared' within the Death-Stalker, blasting it's armor and 'flesh' away, to make way for the new matter suddenly there, and I flash stepped into another punch, doing the same again, causing the Death-Stalker to practically explode slightly, 'slicing' my arms up, through the Death-Stalker and tumbling backwards, leaving way for the sources of danger my Sense Danger had alerted me to, and the Death-Stalker was shot to bits, rifle rounds, revolver rounds, a couple shot gun shots, all made of dust, and as such, they all exploded on contact, tearing the Death-Stalker to bits, it's 'flesh' giving way to more gunfire, a couple rockets, and finally, Qrow shot forwards, from... somewhere, stabbing the Death Stalker, and flicking his hand on the handle of his blade, possibly trying to dislodge it, but it-

Oh.

His blade segmented, effectively extending momentarily, before curving, and tearing the Death Stalker in half, before fully curving into a scythe, and the handle extending, and then Qrow used it as leverage to flip himself over the corpse, and stabbing directly into the back of another normal Death Stalker, killing it instantly.

This, is going to be a fun few minutes.

Or, maybe about an hour, technically, with my Acceleration reaching new heights thanks to my skills and stats.

You get the point.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys, Wizard Of here, and just wanting to say that unless I have an announcement or something, not every chapter will have a Author's Note anymore. But currently, I just want to say thank you for following and favoriting the story, it let's me know you like it, although I would appreciate more reviews, be it simple reviews or feedback and requests, I would love to hear them.**

 **Or read them, not really hearing them because... Yeah, you get the point.**


	29. Kill the Territory

After some time, the Hunters began slowing down, not any less deadly, just using less bullets, switching mecha-shift weapons to melee form, being more conservative in general, String Guy just weaved a sword and began fighting with it a while ago.

I guess they finally noticed this was going to turn into a fight of attrition.

Earlier in the fight, I had Manifested Levant, so she could use her own power to help everyone, some bullets found their targets better, as if guided by invisible tubes, Grimm that should have stood fell, Hunters that almost got knocked down found themselves held up by invisible hands, some of the faster Hunters may have noticed the air almost parting away from them where they were running, sometimes pushing them faster.

All of this was orchestrated by the small flurry of wind, whirling quickly in place in the middle of the clearing, which had gotten much clearer since the fighting started.

The ground was littered with smoking Grimm corpses, literally and just dissipating, smoking craters from the more explosive Hunters, smoking Hunters that somehow hadn't dropped their cigarettes any time in the fight, and perfectly fine, neatly stacked money and health potions randomly, but neatly, stacked around the battlefield, that could only be seen or grabbed by me.

I had gotten some levels in Unarmed,Acceleration Manifest Elemental, as well as Summon Elemental and Air Affinity in the middle of the battle, as well as one level, which was kind of surprising.

I learned that Levant didn't just control the wind, Levant was the wind, meaning that she could 'tell' me where things were, at least if they were displacing air.

The fighting briefly stopped, Hunters on guard but unsure of where the next attack will be, some gunners had decided to start bashing things with their guns, which works I guess.

And then the air moved a ways away, in the forest, the air was moving quite a bit, more than an Ursa would move it, but not too much more, and it was in a strange pattern as well.

"There's something coming from that way, it's still a ways away, unless it speeds up." I said, surprised by how many Hunters followed my gaze and focused on lookout.

Although, I suppose it doesn't matter if the Intel comes from your superior or a stranger on your side in the middle of a battle, does it?

The air was still moving, the thing was getting closer, I couldn't see it, sadly, but I could see it was definitely big.

"It's moving in a weird pattern, a bit taller than an Ursa, seems to move like multiple creatures, any ideas?" I asked, it was worth a shot.

One lone Hunter's eyes widened, throughout the fight he had the least synergy with everyone, just fought on his own and tried not to get in the way, I figured he hadn't had a team here, and now I might know why.

"It can't be..." He mumbled, quiet, although with the silence his words carried. "It has to be... It's the Cobra Hydra."

Everyone went dead still.

"It's still moving towards us, quickly, and we definitely cant run." I said, this thing was definitely moving towards us. "We'll have to fight."

And just then it broke the treeline, one head came first, then another, and another, each like the King Taijitu but a bit larger, and attached to more than one, judging by the amount of heads coming out of the treeline, this thing had a lot of heads joining one point.

I look around, seeing Winter being one of the few un-phased by the creature, or at least acting like it.

"Winter, you're with me, everyone, pair up, fight one fight, swap when it would help either save your life or get a good strike, we need to take this thing down." I said, Levant knowing to carry my voice.

And then I told Levant to carry my voice to just Winter. "We fight the connection point, everyone else will probably choose a head, when we see an opening, I'll charge in, when I signal you, go for the kill, alright?"

She nodded.

"Okay, let's do this!" I shouted, turning Katar into my favored sword form, rushing valiantly into battle, an army of Hunters behind me.

Funny, considering I was just a thief, at least in this suit.

* * *

Hunters with melee weapons charged a head, we nearly had a pair for a pair of heads, so me and Winter kept those extra heads busy.

I ducked under a sweep of a head, chopping it off in the process, it didn't do much to the beast's massive seven health bars, considering it had heads to spare, and besides, it still had the stump to swing around.

We couldn't have that, so I Flash Stepped further just after cutting through it, to cut it off near the center by swinging the other way.

A quick look around told me the Hunters were having trouble, so I began cutting through as many heads as I could.

I got through five before it spotted me, slammed a head into me, nearly squishing me against it's core.

I flash stepped away, but not without a hit to my health bar.

The hunters started fighting the heads near the slightly less-dense area, and started having an equal fight.

That's how we do this.

Flash stepping again behind the guard of a preoccupied head, I slice through it once more.

But the Cobra Hydra was prepared, hundreds of smaller heads sprung from the core, trying to attack me, I got bit a couple times, my health about half, but I kept cutting, the attacks only meant numbers, but my attacks meant damage and less attacks from the beast.

Five more heads gone, hundreds to go, but more importantly, that area was much clearer a battlefield, the String-Guy would push away a strike, just to leap back and have someone else cut into the head, this was working, even more importantly, the heads were growing back, albeit slowly.

But the health bar was still nearly full, so something about this wasn't working, so I tried stabbing my sword to the hilt into the core of the Grimm.

It only got about half way in.

"SWITCH!" I yelled, projecting my voice to Winter.

Pushing myself backwards with the wind, Winter leaped over me, piercing her Rapier into the core, having it burst into flames, activating the Dust canister within the rapier.

The health bar dropped to nothing, but still six to go.

On another note, every head nearby turned towards Winter, standing on the core pumping Aura into the Dust, flames still burning, still pushing the rapier further into the beast.

I tried to use my power to push her out of the way with the wind, but I couldn't, the heads were moving too fast.

The wind pushed her a little, and she noticed what was going on, trying to leap away, but she was still too slow.

She jumped, back flipping away from the beast, two health bars down, five left, I couldn't see Human's health bars, but she was probably low on aura from pushing so much into the fire.

One head missed, another missed, five more missed, but the next was heading straight for her head, preparing to strike.

Winter tilted her head to the side, away from the snake, but not far enough, a fang raked through her skin, carving a deep cut along the side of her face, just narrowly missing her left eye, cutting just above her ear, around the back of her head, the rest of the teeth managed to slightly scratch her shoulder.

I threw her far away, towards the cliff, pausing my own movement to make sure she landed safely.

Ontop of a tree, but safe.

I kicked Accelleration to the highest, accelerating me, my cloths, and a small pocket of air in front of my mouth and nose, poured Aura into my muscles, and charged, forming Katar into dual blades as I ran, the balls of my feet barely touching the ground before I took the next step, the speed I was running at the air felt like it was burning.

I charged straight at the empty area, clear of heads, prepared both swords to swipe from my left hand side, to the right.

And then I cut, and then I cut the other way, to the left, slicing faster than anyone could see, using both swords just to effectively cut twice for one swing in a direction.

When I next realized what was going on, the Cobra Hydra looked like it had been pushed through many, many tennis rackets, I had Katar grow larger, now wielding two large swords, I had cut off a few more normal heads in my rage as well, as well as rolled the beast over and stabbed it directly through the center with both swords, blades pointing to my right and left, standing on top of it, every Hunter had backed away a good distance.

And I cut.

The whole beast just vibrated in, presumably, pain, as it was completely cut in half, save for a sphere floating in the dead center of where the beast would be, I turned by hands, and cut the sphere twice at the same time, two power strikes, the full force of my aura, the wind, The Holy Flame, all poured into effectively one attack.

The sphere shattered, and the beast started dissipating.

"Ironwood, Winter was injured, she's that way, in a tree, safe, but you should probably get medical attention to her, quickly." I say, Levant boosting the sound to everyone, not even bothering to funnel it towards Ironwood.

Ironwood ran into the forest in the direction I pointed at from atop my dissolving corpse-throne.

"Should we be ready?" String-Guy said.

"No, the Grimm know this place is just a death trap for them now."

 **Territory Earned**

 **Open World Map to view extent of your territory!**

 **By enforcing your power over the Grimm within this area, they now know you own this place, and will leave it alone, for now.**

 **You will receive an alert if your territory is under attack, and will be transported into a Territory Defense Instance if you wish to fight for the territory.**

"They just know." I say.


	30. Kill the Return

After a while, General Ironwood came back carrying Winter as a small Bullhead landed.

"All hunters are dismissed for this, thank you." Ironwood said as he boarded the Bullhead, and String-Guy went with them.

"Well." I started, "I must go, I have business to attend to, good luck Hunters."

And then I took a bow, jumped much higher than I have before, probably due to my new Dexterity, and begun gliding, putting a quick black raven illusion over me for fun and practice, and gliding back to beacon.

You know, I never saw myself in this position.

And I don't think Hannes did either.

* * *

Getting close to Beacon, I saw the Lockdown must have been raised, and was given a choice.

Does Rythian return to Beacon, or Jo?

This may not seem like a big choice, but it is. As Jo I would be asked questions about where I was, and as Rythian I would probably be asked how my family was.

This was probably the perfect time to have Rythian return, after Jo went missing for a bit, just say that was Jo leaving.

I could go back as Rythian, and say my family member passed, and be quiet, but it hasn't been than long, and anyways, I have business left as Jo.

Turning into Jo while flying just below the Initiation cliff, I pull up quickly, storing Lenore and Dreary Midnight in my inventory, lowering my Air Affinity, but I still have enough control to slow and angle my descent into a landing.

All that's left to do is report to Ozpin and walk out of there, and meet up with the teams, possibly fill Blake in on everything.

Maybe not literally everything, figuratively everything.

* * *

The walk through Beacon was normal, slightly changing the colors on the Shield on my back with Illusions, not enough that anyone would notice. The beginning had people looking my way, probably wondering why I had come from the Initiation Cliffs, but after a while that stopped, probably because I blended into the crowd.

Well, as much as someone with an Arc Emblem emblazoned on a metal plate on their back, with a large sword handle behind their head can blend into a crowd, which, in Beacon, is surprisingly easy.

Finally, getting to the elevator and heading to Ozpin's floor, on the ride up I was making scenes and battle scenarios on the floor with Illusions, little three dimensional oval shapes in different formations, gaining a couple levels in Illusion as well as Large Scale Planning, which improved the speed and quality of plans involving whole armies.

When the door opened to Ozpin's floor, hordes of tiny glowing shapes were climbing all over what roughly looked like a plastic-glowing stuffed elephant toy, while glowing specks pecked them off the elephant.

And then a sound like glass shattering filled the room, my illusions dissipated, and an actual black bird sat perched on Ozpin's desk, looking quite dazed, probably because it seemed to have flown through a window.

"This," Ozpin started, and then immediately sipped his coffee. "Is going to be an interesting meeting."

"Why, did something happen?" I say, noticing the bird... drinking out of a second mug on Ozpin's desk, and Ozpin not seeming to care.

"Not that I know of," That pretty much meant nothing happened. "It's just the company in the room that will make this interesting." he finished, looking at the bird, who immediately took it's beak out of the mug, and walked to the edge of the desk, perched on the edge, looking at me, an Observe shows it's a Crow, but the window keeps scrolling..

Oh.

"It's Qrow." I say, realizing it sounds the same. "It's the Hunter, Qrow, not just a bird."

And then the bird took off, flying straight towards my face, I raise my arm to shield my face, accelerating, and looking past my arm...

Oh, Qrow's just standing there.

Lowering my arm, I speak.

"Hello Qrow, that's quite an interesting semblance, you turn into a crow, right?"

 **Through close examination of a semblance, you have learned a _Semblance_ to _Replicate_.**

That seems _really_ good.

"Quick learner," He said, drinking from his flask, seriously, why does everyone I know have to drink in the middle of a sentence? " Though it was pretty obvious. What's your name?"

"Jo Arc, nice to meet you."

"Qrow Branwen, but it sounds like you knew that." Another drink. "So Oz, why did you say this would be interesting?"

"Because I believe you two have met before, not too long ago in fact." Ozpin said, drinking.

"Really Ozpin?" I say. "There are no secrets, are there?" Ozpin smiled, Qrow looked confused, which meant he drank more, which probably didn't actually help.

Silence.

Sip.

"Well, it seem I'll take the initiative." I say. Opening my inventory and equipping Dreary Midnight and Lenore.

"You know Oz." Chug, empty flask. "I'm going to panic and kill someone one of these days." And Qrow passed out.

Ozpin was right.

This truly would be an interesting meeting.

* * *

 **Wizard Of here, sorry for the wait, I've been quite busy with some stuff, this whole "Real Life" thing you may have heard of, it's pretty good most of the time.**

 **Anyways, I've been busy, sorry for the wait and the short chapter, hopefully when I stop being busy I can get some longer chapters out, maybe a 2K chapter to celebrate?**

 **Remember, if you like the story, follow and** _Is it subscribe... No?_ **Follow and favorite the story to get updates! also, don't forget to leave reviews, it gets boring writing a story when it seems like no one's reading it.**

 **Also, I forgot to post this last Tuesday when I wrote it, and it has been just sitting in my Doc Manager in the website all week, so sorry.**


	31. Kill the Golden Dragon

After some time Qrow woke up, surprisingly quickly, actually, and grabbed his sword off his back.

"The Nevermore was a guy Ozpin, this isn't him."

"Was I?" I said, putting a rough illusion of Ozpin over me, "Are you sure of that?" And then an illusion of Qrow, then an illusion of the wall behind me.

"Point taken, but what's the real you?" Qrow asks, and lowers his sword, as I drop the illusion of the wall, leaving just Deary Midnight and Levant, no other features, and I stare at him, all four eyes focused on two.

"Point taken, so what's this meeting about Ozpin?"

"Now, I'll be blunt, the Queen is moving Qrow, you know this, I'm sure you've also realized that things are moving without us, we need more people, and The Nevermore might be just what we need. He might be able to make contact with the people the Queen is affiliated with, as I believe he has attracted their attention."

Qrow went silent, and still, just standing there, probably thinking, hard to think this was the same guy who ended up hiding behind a tent after making people think Ironwood's name was Jimmy.

"If we had someone on the inside, we might be able to take down the Queen..." Qrow said.

"I don't know who this Queen is, but I could figure some under cover stuff out." I said, causing illusionary shapes to fly through the air around me, slightly Accelerated, wind swirling, grinding levels, waiting to examine my loot until I'm alone, because it's in my inventory.

Qrow spoke up, "Okay then, that sounds pretty good to me, Ozpin can think of the first step, maybe first two, maybe the whole plan, and we just wait around until he's got that."

Ozpin drank his coffee.

"That sounds like one of the best plans."I said. "Better than the Assault team, I'll admit."

"That plan never really hit the ground, so it doesn't count." Qrow said.

"You are both dismissed." Ozpin said.

Qrow fell out of the window and turned into a crow then flew away.

I took off Dreary Midnight and Lenore and just went down the elevator, there'd be a crowd to blend in there.

* * *

Working my way through the crowd, I managed to spot the rest of JASR in combat gear, heading roughly to the mini-arena usually used for combat class.

Ahh, I imagine that after the initial lockdown Ozpin must have just released people to an extended combat class or something, since the normal class schedule was disturbed by the lockdown.

Well, time to fight, I guess.

* * *

Getting to the class, apparently on time, I sit down near the rest of my team, and no one really said anything, although Blake was sitting a while away, making eye contact for a moment, and then just looking back at the arena.

After a moment, Mrs. Goodwitch stepped onto the stage behind the arena from another door.

"Students, as you may have heard, today's normal classes have been cancelled, but now there is an extended combat class to fill the day."

There were a couple of groans from the students.

"Now, normally, in combat class, we fight one on one battles, but now we can have two versus two battles."

There were a couple cheers.

"First, can Jo Arc and Yang Xiao Long step down to the arena."

I started walking down the stairs, and Yang walked down a short while later.

"I've been looking forward to fighting you Jo, I just hope it wont be end too fast." Yang said, loading Ember Celica.

"That remains to be seen." I replied.

Goodwitch activated the shield over the arena. "Remember, any attacks made after the opponents Aura has reached the red will result in punishment."

Multiple people in the stands sat up straight.

"Fight."

* * *

Yang charged forwards, firing Ember Celica backwards to fly forwards, flipping into a pair of punches aimed towards my head.

And I leapt over her, kicking off her back and landing behind her.

She was sent towards the ground, but flipped into a crouched landing, before charging again, eyes tinting red.

I turned my forearm outwards, receiving one of the punches on the plating, before stepping forwards into her guard, hitting her in the side of the face with my other forearm, sending her into the ground.

Glancing towards the board, I see Yang's aura reaching half, slightly draining.

Glancing towards Yang, I see her hair engulfed in flame, her eyes blazing red.

But this time, she didn't charge, she just walked towards me relatively slowly.

So I charged instead, Yang changing stance briefly.

And I Accelerated for a second, making it seem like I ran even faster, but then I stopped Accelerating once Yang started to block, crossing her arms infront of her face, and I slid, sliding for a moment before spinning and kicking her legs out from under her with my left leg, standing mid way through the kick, turning Yang horizontal, doing a complete spin, and bringing my right foot down on her neck, sending her into the ground.

Aura Red.

Standing, I notice as the shield goes down, and the arena fills with cheers.

"Congratulations Jo Arc, well fought, although I do wonder why you did not draw your weapon." Goodwitch said, after silencing the students.

"I didn't draw my weapon because no matter how fast and used to them I am, the sheer size of my weapons can be quite unwieldy at times." I said, drawing and extending my weapons.

"Very good point, well done Jo."

"Yang Xiao Long," She stood to her feet from her position cross-legged on the floor. "In the future, if someone moves to take one of your attacks, instead of dodging, it is most likely not wise to continue with that attack."

Yang nodded.

"Now, since Jo's Aura is still at a good level, if she does not object, she may still participate in sparring. This rule applies to everyone who fights today." Goodwitch said. "You are dismissed."

Yeah, this was going to be fun.

Walking back to my seat, at least until I got called up again, Yang stopped me on the way.

"You know Jo, I never thought the first time would be that painless."

And she walked away.

Honestly did not expect that type of joke.

Although, I probably should have.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Honestly, I started to write this chapter this last Tuesday, and then I stopped due to RL things, and then just forgot about it until Sunday... so yeah, that's pretty cool I guess, I can't think of anything to write here, except to say to remember to review follow and... favorite, yeah, favorite, I forgot that again.**_

 _ **Also, small edit, just a small note about why Jo(akim) didn't draw her weapons.**_

 _ **Another small edit, just a little bit of after-battle thing.**_

 _ **Still flying by the seat of my chair here, no plane or anything! Not even a back rest!**_

 _ **Seriously though, writing a story as I think of it, kind of difficult, but that doesn't mean I'm going to make a essay map or something, those things are evil,**_ **EVIIIIL! _So updates will continue to be slow, but the story will soon be speeding up!_**

 ** _I just realized Rythian completed a quest, and didn't get any notification, and another thing that needed to happen but I forgot, oh well._**


	32. Kill the Wounds

A few fights went by without much happening, Cardin was beaten very, very easily by Ren, Cardin couldn't land a single hit, while Ren was striking at the many, many openings Cardin left after swinging, and then Pyrrha had fought Blake, which was interesting, because every time Blake would have hit her, the blade slightly turned and missed, followed by a quick counterattack most of the time.

Now, Dove Bronzewing and another first year were called down to the arena, the other first year having white hair, red eyes, with a small amount of armor, a few simple plates, all white with a red line of parts, and a green gauntlet on his left arm, the hilt of a dagger just slightly visable inside, and the-

It felt like my heart had just pumped so hard it bruised my lung, a knot was pulled tight around my thighs, calves and arms, my throat was crunched, and it felt like my stomach was punched to a high speed train.

And a window opened, showing that the status effect "Gravely Wounded" was in effect.

Apparently, when gravely wounded, Mana and Health damage against me is doubled, and actually injures me, instead of just lowering the number, as well as some mana costs being converted to health cost.

Briefly panicking I check if my right hand is still attached, since it had been severed in my fight with Hannes, I realied that it was still attached, and calmed down. Though there was still a brutal stinging pain where it was severed.

Basically, I felt sore all over, literally every muscle in my body cramping and sore at the same time.

However, I did notice it wasn't actually hurting my HP, and was just hurting me, so I just clenched my teeth and fought through it, gaining a skill for my troubles, and five levels instantly.

 **[Not A Sweat (Active) LV5 - EXP 12.52%]**

 **Allows you to perform to the most of your abilities, while seeming like you are barely trying.**

 **Higher levels hide more exertion.**

This would be quite useful, especially if I keep trying to put off an imposing image, either as myself, Jo, or The Phantom Nevermore.

Goodwitch began speaking"Remember class, a Hunter's second function, directly after killing Grimm, is, strangely enough, to do it with style and grace, or overwhelming force. A civilian who sees a Hunter use all their strength to kill a group of Grimm, even if their Aura makes it so they can keep fighting, may be discouraged by this. A civilian who sees a Hunter dispatch a horde of Grimm with precise movements, not missing a strike, never using more force than necessary, and most importantly, making it seem easy, will be encouraged and happy to know they are protected by these great warriors. I know this is typically not the focus of combat class, but who can tell me why this is?"

I look around, no one raises there hand. I'm sure a few would, but most of them are focusing on the fight going on.

I raise my hand.

"Yes, Jo?"

"It is because a discouraged and sad civilian will attract more Grimm, while a happy and, obviously protected civilian will at the very least not attract Grimm, and possibly, since no tests have been done since it is a very uncontrollable situation, repel the Grimm as well."

A few students looked up from watching the fight intently, before looking back at the fight again.

"Very good Jo, Grimm are attracted to negativity. While the reason for this is unknown, the most prominent theory is they can sense it, and they are only attracted to it because it most likely represents a weak target, be it a town that had recently lost it's guard, or just a few civilians who see a Hunter struggle to kill a Grimm." Goodwitch said. "This is also the reason for the flashy colors and weapon styles. While theoretically we could mass-train people to simply use swords and shields, being the classic weapon of choice for years, it may seem too uniform and bland to inspire happiness in civilians. Meanwhile with all the different Hunter weapons in existence, and, to a lesser extent, the bright colored equipment, paint pictures of truly unique, powerful, skilled defenders of the world. A bright color fighting back the darkness makes more civilians feel safe than a bland, dark colors seemingly sitting within the darkness."

Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.

"Also," Still talking. "festivals and tournaments contribute to this greatly. Namely the Vytal Festival. The Vytal Festival is, in a wide term, something to make civilians happy, but the tournament itself is to show the civilians the Hunters. It is to show the civilians the people who protect them, and their homes, every day. It is to show that even the rookie Hunters-in-training can fight, and to make them think. How powerful will these Hunters be by the time they are actually defending the city?"

"This is the reason we spar so much with other Hunters. So that when the tournaments come around, we can show the civilians just how powerful their noble defenders are. While a Hunter that can kill lots of Grimm is good, a Hunter that can kill lots of Grimm and prevent them from being attracted to the place they are trying to protect is great."

"Now, back to watching the fights." She finished.

My first thought?

That was a lot of words.

My second thought?

Man, that first year guy is getting beat.

Dove had some sort of sword with a simple pistol design in it. The advantage of the overly simple design being that Dove wouldn't need to transform it to get a ranged weapon like most other Hunters. And how it most likely didn't have any grooves or hollow areas, allowing for a generally higher durability, since it didn't need to mechashift.

However the other first year, who's name is Bell, according to the Aura Monitors above the arena, had a simple dust launching mechanism, that could fire simple Burn Dust charges, as well as a simple dagger in his left hand, and a black blade in his right, a pure black handle with the blade black, the edge polished a bit brighter than the rest of the blade. Both blades around the length of his forearms. Mostly dodging attacks, redirecting the strikes he couldn't dodge, or blocking them and letting himself flip around. The green gauntlet seemed to be as strong as a typical shield, even if it would strain his arms more than a shield. After a roll to dodge an overhead strike, the overhead swing from Dove just turned sideways, catching him in the side, sending him away. Bell ended in a crouch, the silver dagger lost but the black blade dug into the ground. He clearly struggled to stand, despite his Aura being only a bit below half. He must have let some of the damage through his Aura to stay in the fight. Once he stood up he shouted something, unheard by anyone thanks to the barrier. And then he charged, diving into a roll to pick up the other dagger and leaping forwards from the roll. The black blade seemed to glow for a moment, but it may have been the light reflecting off the highly polished blade. In a moment, all three blades in the arena clashed, and two of them shattered.

The simple dagger, which was positioned behind the black blade in Bell's arms.

And Dove's blade, which was, in fact, solid metal.

Bell pushed his own weight off of Dove's blade just before it snapped, flipping and spinning over him, mid-air Bell swapped hands, the black blade in a reverse grip in his left hand, the next moment, it was in both hands, definitely glowing blue this time, and plunged into Dove's back, straight through the metal, firing a Burn charge into his back.

Dove's aura was gone.

Goodwitch called the match.

And Bell said he'd help re-forge Dove's blade.

And then combat class ended for the day.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Being honest, I've been trying to write this for like a couple weeks now I think, I just haven't gotten around to it, this file has had 120 words in it for the past 2 weeks, a week ago I wrote it in a document (Since I didn't have internet at the time.) are reached about 320 words, and then in the past hour or so, I sat down and wrote it, 1366 words before this A/N.**_

 _ **So, typical A/N stuff, please remember to follow/favorite, and especially remember to review, I can see the traffic stats for the story! I know you are reading this but I don't see any reviews! Even just a "Hey, liking the story so far.." would be cool, it's really hard to write a story you have no idea if anyone likes it or not, for all I know everyone who's read the story hates it with a burning passion and just hasn't said anything.**_


	33. Kill the Coat

A bit after combat class, when I was heading to one of the training arenas, Blake stopped me.

"How did it go?" She started, mostly emotionless, just a little bit of concern.

"Good, I had to go out and help clear some Grimm, but not much happened, I got some loot I was dying to look at."

"Well, what do they do?"

"I'm not sure yet, let's head in the training room first."

* * *

The training room was a decent size, about the size of a medium arena, there was a control panel near the door, which controlled the settings of the training bots.

But, I ignored all this, in favor of opening my inventory, and looking at the things I picked up.

 **Skill Book: Naraka**

 **Creates a copy of the world, where nothing can get in or out unless the barrier is broken.**

 **Would you like to learn this skill?**

 **[Yes] [No]**

"It's a skill book, an interesting one at that." I said, pressing the Yes button.

 **Naraka (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%**

 **Worlds can exist among each other, next to each other, yet out of reach, or miles away, but only a thought away.**

 **Creates an Instance, summons Grimm in the instance relative to the level of the skill, according to settings you set.**

 **By** ╃┇╩╼┭╰╬┑╊ **, you have gained the skill _Touno Danjon_**

 _ **Touno Danjon**_ **(Active) LV1 EXP:0.00%**

 **スキルを使用すると、Orario、Babelのふもとの街で別の世界を入力します,** **底から始まって、あなたの道を上がり、またはむしろ、ダウンします.**

Naraka was a great skill, allowing me to train at any moment, which is very useful, but Touno Danjon was... strange, I don't know what it does, or what it's saying, apart from Orario and Babel, which is kind of scary, considering that the Gamer usually gives me a sort of inner knowledge of my skills, even before I read the description.

"This is actually quite interesting." I said, casting an Empty Naraka.

All sounds faded, the slight bustle of the school faded, and I just knew that everyone dissapeared. Silence, except for the breathing and heartbeats of me and Blake, since I had 'allowed' her into the barrier.

"What did you do Jo?" Blake said, on guard, while not about to attack, she was still on guard.

"I apparently brought us into a Barrier of sorts, called Naraka, it's an Instance, which seems to mean that no one, and nothing, is in here with us." I started. "And things that happen here don't effect the real world."

I said this while Flash Stepping to the side of the door, punching a fist-sized hole in the wall, I pulled my arm back, then disabled Naraka, revealing that the wall is fine.

"Jo, that's an amazing ability." Blake started.

"Yeah, I can already see amazing uses for it." I said, looking in my inventory again, looking at the scarf, within my inventory.

 **Doho no Chi [Equipment] [Scarf]**

 **?**

 **?**

 **?**

The scarf was red, much shorter than the scarf I wear as Rythian, but the ends of the scarf... On one of them, there was a outline in red, filled with fire-like colors, moving into a point, starting yellow, then orange, then finally red, which looked like an eye, while the other end was just a simple end of a scarf.

That equipment was going to Rythian, now to check the coat.

 **Blackwyrm Coat [Equipment] [Coat]**

 **This coat is said to have been made from the leather of black dragons, whether this is true or not has yet to be seen.**

 **Bonus to Sneak.**

 **Can be worn multiple ways.**

The coat was black, as to be expected, one way it could be worn, was a high collarlong sleeve ankle length coat covering the sides and the back, with white outlines on the edges, with a decorative belt at the waist, and a three-point belt sort of thing at chest level, two straps go around and meet in the back, however the third goes over the right shoulder, a metal plate on the left arm and comes with optional simple black T-shirt and black jeans, which was kind of strange.

Another way it could be worn, despite somehow looking entirely different, was a pair of black sleeves, connected in the back, again with a high collar, and a button in the front, with a small area where the collar is 'cut out', a metal plate with a strap on the chest for armor, that covered from slightly above the waist to just below the neck, a simple black shirt underneath it,with what seems like a shin length skirt, but only on the sides and back, with a belt that had a purple gem in it for decoration, which doubled as a holster or sheath for any weapons I wanted to wear, outside of just equipping them when I need them, as well as some dark grey pants, with black bands around them at mid-thigh level.

It didn't say how much the bonus to sneak was, but given how I don't have any equipment coats aside from Dreary Midnight, which was connected to The Phantom Nevermore. So I wore the Blackwyrm Coat in the second way, simply just equipping it through my inventory.

"I also got this, which gives me a 'Bonus to Sneak'" I said, being sure to exactly quote the Observe I used on the item. "Which is probably good, no matter how much it is. Also, it might be made of black dragon leather, unless that is just some flavor text The Gamer threw in that isn't true."

"It looks nice, practically it wouldn't work much better than anything else, given the purple gem and your bright blonde hair." Blake put forward.

"Yeah, but then again this is a game, it probably has a way of dealing with that. In a game, if your character is wearing anything but Heavy Armor or something like it, your sneaking is unaffected, never mind how much you glow or are wearing bright colors."

"That is a good point Jo," Blake starts. "So, what were you planning on doing in the training arena?"

"Basically, I was going to try out ways to use Levant in combat, to level her up, as well as train some of my other skills, maybe try to find some new ones, but now I think about it I could have done the same thing in Naraka with actual Grimm, and get EXP towards my main level as well, if I had used the skillbook.

"That seems like a good plan, would you mind if I join you?" Blake says.

"Sure, the more the merrier." I say. "Actually, currently I can only summon Beowolves, and they probably aren't very high level, since Naraka is only level one. But on the bright side, we wont have to worry about damaging the area or anything, since it's not real, although as soon as we get it we should mark an area to return from, since personally I'm not exactly fond of the idea of teleporting into a classroom, or one of the team's rooms, or anything really."

All I got was a nod in response, and Gambol Shroud being unsheathed.

This was going to be useful, but might get boring after a while, especially if some of my ideas are actually skills. Although I'll have to make sure to keep Blake from seeing some of them, so I can use them as Rythian.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys, Wizard Of here, sorry for the long wait, just a bit busy IRL, that and I've been lazy, and thinking about how to present Touno Danjon.**

 **So, honestly, a lot of this chapter (And therefore, quite a bit of the chapters to come.) are references, if you can spot them, good on you.**

 **That said, anything in another language, (Touno Danjon, the name of the scarf, and the description of Touno Danjon) Should not be translated, currently, it's just something to show that Joakim doesn't know what it is, and the Game doesn't exactly know either.**

 **Also, it should not be translated because I used the first translator I found on the internet, so odds are it is not accurate.**

 **And I just realized I spent 272 words describing the coat, which I feel is a good amount, but still seems like so much.**

 **So, after all that, remember to review, it really helps, even the fact that this story has gotten a whopping 4,695 views but only 8 reviews saddens me, I understand if you dislike the story, but I don't understand if you wont even leave a tidbit about why you hate the story.**

 **So basically, remember to review, favorite and follow, pretty sure favoriting and following give you updates whenever I update the story, which can be useful given my lack of schedule.**

 **Bye, talk to you either when you leave a review that I feel could use a reply (Remember, I will also answer questions, assuming they aren't something along the lines of "Will this person live" or anything like that.) or when I add another chapter. Farewell.**


	34. Kill the Bjomolf

Long story short, a populated Naraka was like I expected, the same sort of 'copy' of the world like an empty one, just with Grimm spawning everywhere we don't have line of sight on.

Seriously, it was getting annoying when they spawn directly behind you, as rare as that may be.

However, being level 70, and mostly dexterity based, I spun on a dime as soon as Sense Danger flared, and promptly roundhouse kicked them into the nearest wall, assuming one was there to stop them.

And was strong enough to stop them.

Apart from the Beowolves that spawned behind me, I mostly used the wind itself to throw the Grimm to the ground, followed by a use of my new skill.

 **[Wind Bolt (Active) LV5- EXP 0.00%]**

 **Infuses a Mana Bolt with the element of Wind, increasing the speed and, assuming it is controlled correctly, penetrating power.**

 **Higher levels increase damage and control, possible curving of the bolts.**

 **101% of Mana Bolt's cost.**

Which, due to "Developing an advanced version of a skill, before the base skill." I managed to pretty much get **Mana Bolt** for free, which was Wind Bolt, but just my own Mana, and I wasn't going to use as Jo.

Which, coincidentally, gave me an extra projectile every 10 levels, which carried over to the Infused versions, since they were just an improvement on Mana Bolt, instead of actually a different technique.

It also leveled up alongside Wind Bolt, because I had to make a Mana Bolt first, before infusing it with Wind.

Blake was holding her own, which wasn't surprising considering these were effectively Minor Beowolves.

I wasn't getting much XP, but my skills were leveling up quite well with my leaping around to hit what looked like weakspots on the Grimm, despite just a couple of Wind Bolt's killing them instantly.

And then an alert appeared in the middle of my vision, a faded black, like burnt and torn paper, with bright red text.

 **Field Boss spawned, prepare yourselves.**

Blake didn't seem to see it though, so I Flash Stepped towards her, blasting a couple bolts into Beowolves on the way.

"A boss monster of some kind just spawned. I'm not sure how strong it will be. I think it might let me upgrade the dungeon if we kill it, not to mention the loot."

"Alright Jo, we should stick together then. There's no telling what it could be."

Just then, a howl boomed out, somewhere in the city of Vale, which wasn't actually that surprising, considering the wolves could spawn anywhere, with or without walls.

A few of them definitely spawned inside the walls of Beacon, in the crawlspaces that were sealed, which was actually kind of annoying, since they sometimes pinged my Sense Danger.

Then a blur of black flew into the sky, like some sort of anti air missile, before arcing back down, landing in what used to be the courtyard of Beacon, destroying it even more, if that is even possible.

 **[Bjomolf LV100 HP100%]**

 **Bear-Wolf**

That... was not good.

"Blake hand me your blade." I said.

"What?"

"Hand me the katana part of your blade, take my shield, this thing is too high level, I need a slimmer blade to be able to dodge better."

She unsheathed her blade and handed it to me, and I handed her my shield which she promptly had to prop up against a wall due to it's weight, which still left a pretty good space underneath that was mostly protected.

Feeling my Sword Master skill take hold, I ran over to what must have been an old storage room, or a forge, due to the normal but high quality blades there, that had been copied by Naraka. Picking up a blade in my off hand, I felt Dual Wielding take hold, which would be immensely useful, since faster attacks would mean a faster recovery, and more time in a rest position ready to dodge any attacks.

Looking back at the figure, I realized it wasn't quite a normal Grimm.

It was about as big as an Ursa Major, maybe larger, with even more bone plating, but was generally slimmer, and stood on four legs like a Beowolf, a fitting description to the title of Bear-Wolf.

 **[Bjomolf has challenged you to a Death Duel.]**

 **[Accept]** _[deny]_

Well, considering the deny button was clearly impossible, I accepted, my buffs deactivated, and a countdown started.

As soon as it hit zero, I activated all my buffs, mostly just Acceleration, and flashstepped into a wind-assisted leap, before initiating a wind-assisted curve into a spinning attack.

Which coincidentally, granted me a Spinning Attack skill, which mostly was just Power Attack, but with an added Armor Piercing.

Which, considering I could actually Power Attack and Spinning Attack at the same time, was much more than 'Just' a bit better Power Attack.

And then Bjomolf nearly dodged, causing me to skim the side of him, crashing into the ground in a fairly sizable crater.

Spinning to the right with my swords, with another power attack, which got blocked by Bjomolf's claws.

This thing is fast, nearly unbelievably so.

Dumping all I have into Accelleration after activating Spirit of Order, I launched into a corkscrew frontflip, spinning towards where I was standing, and every attack supplemented by Power Attack and using my wind affinity to push Bjomolf around, confusing it whenever a strong wind pushed up against it, apparently making it think there were multiple fighters.

When it got down to 10% health, it roared, pushing me back with the force.

Flashstep behind, power attack.

And it bounced off the hide, with no damage.

Well, normally this would mean that the weapon just wasn't sharp enough, and the material was too strong.

But, this is a game. Some games have Melee and Ranged attacks as different damage types,even Magic was it's own usually, meaning something could have Melee resistance or immunity.

Bjomolf just went rage-mode and has Melee Immunity.

Based on both Sun and Ruby's weapons both transforming into ranged weapons, or having ranged weapons while it is also a normal weapon, I Observed Gambol Shroud.

Semi automatic pistol... Should be enough to get past the normal resistance, assuming it has any after it Enraged.

A small button, on the left side of the handle.

Pressing the button, the sword started folding forwards, segmenting about a quarter up the blade, the larger portion folding backwards, when it completely folded, it slid back, a small spring pushing a pin into place to hold it.

Pulling the trigger, Gambol Shroud fired, a bullet streaking through the air, surprisingly slow, although that's probably because of my Accelleration.

 **[ _Firearms_ _Mastery_ 's level has increased by 2]**

I fired again, multiple times before the the first bullet even hit, resulting in more levels for Firearm Mastery.

When the first bullet hit, it took 1%, when the second hit, it seemed like it just took 1%, but given how the next shot took 3%, I have a feeling each shot was a bit above 1%.

Five bullets quickly fired killed it. It was, in a sense, dead before the first shot even hit.

 **By firing multiple shots in quick succession, you have gained the skill _Rapid Shot_.**

 **[Rapid Shot (Active) LV 1- EXP 0.00%]**

 **When activated, increases fire rate by 5%**

That is very useful, especially if I level it.

"Blake, it's dead." I shout towards the shield posted against the wall.

Blake pushes the shield away, which seems to take quite a bit of force, and stands up.

"Okay, that's good."

"Yeah, looking at the loot, there's some health potions, mana potions, lien, some dust, crystals and powder.." I started saying, just trailing off to muttering.

"Jo?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to go back to normal? As much as most of it screams 'This is the embodiment of good.' the faceless mask is kind of unnerving."

"Oh, right." I say, disabling Spirit of Order, just as something catches my eye.

A sword, laid across it's simple black sheath. The sword was black, with bright white edges and detailing, near the tip, there was a small silver cross in the center, the hand guard is slightly larger on one side, and goes up and curves back to meet the blade, and the very bottom of the blade, it widens slightly and meets up with the hand guard, and slightly extends on the other side. The blade portion that extends sideways has a spike on each side, and the longer hand guard also has a spike. The blade is a little under four feet long.

When observed, I was pleasantly surprised.

 **Light Bringer +0**

 **Long Sword / One Hand**

 *** Range:** Short

 *** Type:** Slash

 *** Attack:** 700-710

 *** Durability:** 1350

 *** Weight:** 170

 *** Requires:** ╬┑╃╼┭ **も** **╰ろ、**

 ***** Eq **も** **ろ、** **も** ╃ **╰ろ**

 ***** A╬ ╃╼┭ **も**

 ***** ╬┑┭ **も** **ろ** **ま** **始**

 ***** ╼┭ **も**

This was the first weapon I've found with statistics. Even though most of the text is glitching out, It's still pretty cool to see a weapon that has stats.

Thinking about it, why has no other weapon ever had stats? Is it because I don't know them? Maybe I just know this one's stats because it's a boss drop for me? Whatever. Although, I am certain that Jo will not be using this weapon, Rythian will.

With the black and white theme it matches the Blackwyrm Coat in that mode more. And besides, I would rather have this weapon as myself, as opposed to Jo, who I am just going to be occasionally.

"Blake, here's some potions and some Lien, it was only because of you I was able to beat that guy. It was only damaged by ranged attacks.

"Jo, this... are these potions real?"

"Well, lets find out, I used quite a lot of Mana."

Drinking a couple mana potions, I found myself full on mana again.

"Yup, they seem to be the real thing. The Lien is as well. This sword though... I think I'm going to give it to Rythian when I get the chance. I think He'd like this." I said. "Well, probably time to get back, a locked training room with no sounds inside is a bit suspicious. We should probably find it and leave in the room though. Randomly appearing in front of a crowd of people or inside a wall is not my idea of a good day."

My scroll buzzed. Not a call, since that's a ring. Not a message, since that's a sort of ding sound.

I opened it up, to see the aura levels of team JASR.

Rythian, me, was fine, Sun was just below maximum but that's to be expected, he probably fell off a tree or something. Janik was actually at maximum, probably just resting.

Aloi was in the red, and slowly draining.

"Nevermind that, we need to get to an area to leave, now." I said.

"Follow me, there's an old classroom that no one uses. Separate from the school, should be mostly intact too, I didn't see many Grimm over there."

"Lead the way, quickly."

We need to save Aloi.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Well, things are happening again.**

 **For anyone wondering, Yes, the coat and sword are references to the same thing. Alright, I couldn't resist.**

 **So, Aloi being in a fight here has been planned for a while.**

 **Well, I say that, but the idea came to me in the bathroom like four or so months ago I think and I just knew it had to happen to progress the story.**

 **Also, just under two months for the one year anniversary of this story, I'll try to put something together for you guys.**

 **Now, shortly after this uploads, I'm going to make a poll. The poll is about if you want to see music being mentioned in the story.**

 **Option 1. I'll say the name of a song I think fits, and that's all. Example. {Caffine, RWBY Soundtrack.}**

 **Option 2. I'll say the rough beat of a song that fits. Example. {Fast Pace Action Song.}**

 **Option 3. I won't do anything.**

 **I'm mostly saying this because I've been reading a lot more stories, and I see a lot of them mentioning songs and things, and I want to know if you guys want songs or not.**

 **Now, farewell until next chapter. Happy Late Christmas/After Hannukah/Whatever Kwanzah is!**


	35. Kill The Alternate Timelines?

**Quest Gained, "Save the Gamer."**

 **Save Aloi (0/1)**

 **Upon First Step Completion. 500000 EXP, Skill Book, Aloi Dies*, Aloi Lives*, Unforeseen Circumstances?**

 **Upon Victory. Double EXP, Another Skill Book, Relation with Aloi Raises, Affection with Aloi Raises, Aloi Lives.**

 **Upon Failure. Half EXP, Aloi Dies, Relation with Aloi falls, Affection with Aloi falls, Unforeseen Circumstances?**

 *** Outcomes depend upon quest outcome and/or severity of failure.**

Well I imagine if Aloi dies my relation with her would fall pretty drastically.

"Would you mind," Another Beowolf killed with Gambol Shroud. "Telling me why we're running?"

"Blake, Aloi is wounded, and we have to save her. Or at least I have to."

"Okay, we're almost to the abandoned classroom, and I'll come with you and help."

Before me was a mostly intact building, at least compared to the other buildings on the school grounds, busting in the door I saw desks stacked into the corner, chairs in the other corner.

Breaking the Instant Dungeon, I pull up my minimap to see where Aloi is, seeing a dot in the middle of the Emerald Forest, with a tap I press it to confirm it is Aloi.

"Okay, my minimap says Aloi is that way, in the forest, but we need to be quick."

Opening the door, me and Blake start running.

* * *

Reaching the edge of the Emerald Forest, Blake started talking.

"Jo, I can't run like that for that long, go on ahead, I'll meet up with you there or on the way back."

Ugh, "Blake, I'm going to need your help I think. Just... Hop on my back and hold onto my shield, I'll carry you there, even if you can get there in any good amount of time you would be either unable to fight or be in the middle of the forest after I'm already gone."

Putting some extra points into Dex to run faster, I suddenly felt a weight on my back, and a small amount of pain, probably from Gravely Wounded.

Turning my head, I saw just the tip of Blake's bow over my shield, and her hands gripping the edge.

"Are you ready Blake?"

"Yes, just hurry up."

"Alright, hold on."

Just before starting to run, a window appeared from The Gamer.

 **?s ? has ?n ?.**

Well, what in the hell is that supposed to mean?

* * *

Running, I see Aloi's Aura briefly shoot up in the Party Menu, probably a small potion or something, then start draining again, slowly.

Nearly there, there's a small clearing, with Aloi on the other side, and a regretfully familiar figure in the clearing between her and us.

"Oh," A voice calls out from the black armored figure, "We meet again, only this time you seem to be _playing_ playing dress up. Well, I will respect this, what is the name of this set of clothing, my dear friend?"

Setting Blake down by a tree, I called out.

"My name is Jo Arc, and I have come to save my teammate!"

"Hmm, amusing, playing as an Arc are you? Well, I suppose our old game was kind of based on the old war hero Arc's weren't they?"

"You are speaking like an untouchable villain, while I seem to remember last we met I defeated you, even if you look a little different this time."

And he did look different, his helmet extended and is sleeker, the horn is sharper and flatter, a black plume on the back, the armor looking more like knights armor, a small piece of cloth honestly a bit like a loincloth, neck guards up around the side and back of the head, sloping forwards, and perhaps most obvious at all, had a new title, where it was previously **The Black Night** , is it now **The Dark Knight.**

"Oh, you noticed? Well, I suppose all that's left is to fight, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." I said, drawing Light Bringer and activating Spirit of Order, becoming a White Knight, the same form I was during our last fight, but still more powerful.

Suddenly, a gravelly voice spoke, not in the field, but just within my mind.

 _"That, isn- uly me."_

Settingthat aside for the moment, I noticed out of the corner of my vision that Aloi's health had slowed draining, and would give me a good amount of time.

"Well then, let's fight." Hannes said, drawing those two wicked black blades he used last time we fought.

* * *

Honestly, the fight was very anticlimactic. Light Bringer on it's own somehow mitigated his healing factor, so I didn't have to worry about his arms reattaching before I had even fully cut them off.

Some abuse of Flash Step and my relatively absurdly high Dexterity landed me quite a few good attacks, eventually leading to killing him, which gave me a good amount of EXP, and had a few alerts appear.

 **You have unlocked the Factions feature.**

 **You have joined the faction, Creatures of Grimm, Rank: Upstart.**

 **You have joined the faction, Beacon Academy, Rank: First Year Prodigy.**

 **You have joined the faction, Secret Keepers, Rank: Member.**

 **You have joined the faction, Cinder's Faction, Rank: Impostor Pawn.**

 **By joining a faction that allows recruiting units, you have unlocked the Recruiting feature, you can hire units from separate factions that you have sufficient Rank in to defend your Territory.**

Each Faction Joining notification had a brief thing about each faction, As expected, the Creatures of Grimm was some typical stuff about them being the creatures of darkness, but had an interesting tidbit about how to advance in rank you simply need to show that you are powerful.

Beacon Academy, as expected, was just simply showing how my status is within Beacon.

Secret Keepers, perhaps the strangest, is the unofficial name The Gamer has assigned to Ozpin's crew, tasked with the most major threats to the kingdom, especially ones which should not be known to the public.

Cinder's Faction, was, for now, just showing that I am, in a way, affiliated with Cinder's Faction, whoever Cinder is, and that due to being an Impostor, some people may think I am a member, and some people within the faction may think I am a Pawn of the faction, but most know I'm not actually part of it, or don't know anything at all.

Filing that away for later, I yelled to Blake to watch the area, and Manifested Levant properly so that she could act on her own, so she could defend the area as well, and ran over to Aloi, pulling multiple potions from my Inventory, Health and Mana.

"Aloi? Are you okay? I got these from Rythian and said they help resto-"

"Joakim, cut the act. You haven't upgraded your Disguise skill enough to hide your name yet, I knew from the start." She said.

"Alright, take these potions anyways, I'll carry you and Blake back, get you to the infirm-"

"Joakim, just wait and listen. As early as I can remember, I had my semblance. Even before my Aura was unlocked. Since the beginning, or at least since I could remember, I had a single quest. It 's title was simply, 'Find the Savior.'When I was young, I didn't know what it meant. It had a little story with it. 'They who embrace both the light, and the dark, in order to fight the darkness, and the enemies of humanity. They will be a mix of the light and dark, with a form like us, normal people, a form enhancing the power of the light within, and a form of dark, embracing the immense power of the darkness to harness it, and turn it against the creatures of darkness. They will fill many roles, right and wrong, to achieve the final goal. They may be seen as a monster, but they will save humanity in the end, and unite the world once more, under the same banner.' Whenever I read this, I had no idea what it could ever mean, but I know now.

I know what it means. I know who it means. It's you, Joakim. I found you, and the quest completed. You are the savior Joakim. You will save everyone."

She then reached up with a bloody hand. in front of her face, pushing some button again and again.

"I know, Joakim, And I'm happy for that." She said, pressing a button further down the menu.

And then she seemingly shattered into shards of blue.

 **Quest completed.**

 **Failure.**

 **250000 EXP, Skill Book, ?, ?, Unforeseen Circumstances?**

She... died.

She died, and I couldn't do anything about it.

I didn't know her too well, but she still died and I couldn't help.

* * *

 **Hello, Wizard Of here, and this chapter took a while, mostly because I was just putting it off, I'll be honest.**

 **Not much to say, really, except that I have a couple little alternate scenes, which are non-canon and complete jokes.**

* * *

Alternate Scene 1.

I suddenly felt a weight on my back, and a pair of legs wrap around my torso, and arms around my neck.

Turning my head, I see Blake wide eyed staring back, a small smile and stylized blush lines on her face.

"Ready Blake?"

"Yes Jo-Chan, let's go!"

I turn to run, and only have one question.

When in the world did The Gamer update this time? And more importantly, why?

* * *

Alternate Scene 2.

Filing that away for later, I yelled to Blake to watch the area, and Manifested Levant properly so that she could act on her own, so she could defend the area as well, and ran over to Aloi, pulling multiple potions from my Inventory, Health and Mana.

"Aloi, I got the-"

"Joakim, just shut up, I've got this, I just have to achieve complete Synchronization with Senketsu."

"Wha-"

A song started playing out of no where.

 _"Don't lose your way!"_

Aloi twisted a key on a glove I never noticed she had, and I looked around trying to find where the song was coming from.

 _"In your mind, we have to be, as one! Don't be afraid, my sweetheart! This is the way to be more strong!"_

And Aloi was-

NOPE! Nope! I'm just staring at this tree! I don't know what's going on, and I don't care!

* * *

 **So, this was two products of my strange imagination while writing this, just two short random things that have no bearing on the story, in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, considering what's happening in canon.**

 **So, remember to review, favorite and follow the story, if you want to. Favorite makes the story show up in your profile's Favorite Stories section, and following gives you E-Mail updates, which is pretty cool.**


	36. Kill the Earth

On the bright side, this area of the forest was now my Territory, and it was pretty close to the other Territory I own.

On the down side, Aloi was dead, and that was a pretty bad down side.

A somber, silent walk back to Beacon, few Grimm crossed my path, which helped let out my anger.

Reaching the outskirts of Beacon, I tell Blake to go ahead, I still have things to do.

Heading to the first Territory I took over, I ended up switching to the Phantom Nevermore, since the Air Affinity allows me to keep Levant fully active longer, so she could deal with minor Grimm, and alert me to anything too large.

Reaching the area, a window popped up in my vision.

 **This Territory is undefended, would you like to recruit some soldiers from a faction you are in?**

Yes, that sounds good.

Responding to my yes, a window appears, a tab for each faction I'm in, most options greyed out, apart from Creatures Of Grimm.

Tapping on the tab, I get a list of Grimm types.

All Grimm types.

Which is to say, my whole vision was wholly filled.

Most of them were greyed out, as expected, like the Goliath, Giant Nevermore, Deathstalker, and a few that didn't have names, but Beowolf, Ursa, Creep, Boarbatusk, Griffin,and Normal Nevermore, all available for "Power Points" which represent the power I've displayed among the Grimm.

Getting about 15 Beowolves, a couple Boarbatusks, four Ursa, and a lot of Creep.

Creep cost 1 power point.

Power Points spent, I see a few Beowolves climb out of the ground in the treeline, bright white with golden eyes and mask lines.

I reached the cliff that the group was camped on, at the bottom of the cliff, there was a small inset area in the rock.

Making a summoning circle on the ground in the outcropping, I pile rocks along the areas marked on the edges.

"I, Joakim Hellstrand, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee, I hope that you heed my call. Come, Earth Elemental!"

The ground in the circle's center shattered, nearly exploding out of the circle, before sucking back towards the center of the circle, liquefying, shining like magma briefly, and then a figure was standing there, slightly taller than me, hair a dirty brown and skin like bronze, eyes literally made of gold, golden bands around his wrists. When he spoke, it was just a low rumble.

 _You have summoned me, and I have come to ask why._

"I'll begin in accordance to the ancient rituals, My real name is Joakim Hellstrand. You have heard my true name; please tell me yours."

The ground rumbled once more, and I was gone. I felt the ground beneath my feel moving constantly, the ground shifting slighter all around the world, mountains forming. I saw a desert, a land devoid of life, change into a green pasture full of tall trees. My awareness shattered, and I saw the earth beneath me flowing up to form around me, leaving me a statue. I felt like I was braking, wearing down like earth in rain. It hurt, It hurt more than anything I'd ever felt, despite having my arms chopped off in the past.

The elemental appeared once more, and my stone skin broke apart, and fell away. It suddenly felt like the world itself was helping me stand.

 _I am with you._ He said. _My name is Ereb. And yours is Joakim Hellstrand?_

"Yes," I said, taking a breath.

 _Then I stand with you, Joakim Hellstrand._

"Yes," I said again. "We are together, Ereb."

 _Then we are one, as the ancient contract dictates._

"Our souls are one."

 _I am Ereb._

"I am Jaune Arc."

 _And until out souls meet their ends-_

"We will be forever one," I swore.

Ereb nodded, golden eyes gleaming as he smiled.

 _Then know that even if the whole of the world stands against you, I will be by your side- And I will grind them to dust._

* * *

My dreams were full of visions of earth, rocks breaking to sand, time seemed strange, Civilization grew, fell, mined wonders of the earth, and then grew again, flourishing.

I woke, time had passed, and I now had an earth elemental.

Well, I suppose it's time to get to work.

And then I got to work, shaping the earth of the cliff, starting with squaring off the outcropping into a doorway, and then starting the boring work of designing some sort of hinge out of the stone itself.

 **Due to using your own power to shape the earth, with only guidance from your elemental, you have created the skill [Stoneshape]**

 **[Stoneshape's level has risen by 3]**

* * *

Returning to Beacon, satisfied with a good days work, Stoneshape at level 32.

Getting close to the dorm buildings, I enter an empty barrier, smashing a hole in the wall, switching into the Blackwyrm Coat, and heading to my bed, then disabling Naraka.

I'll... Notify everyone come the morning.

Also, I'll probably buy some clothes, for when I'm Jo.

Or I'll just come back as Rythian tomorrow.

Yeah, that sounds better.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Wizard Of here, and I apologize this chapter was a bit short and late. Secondly, I let Rythian get a Earth Elemental, because it felt a bit strange that Rythan found that he could summon elementals of a lost age and not immediately summon all of them, and just sit there with one of them.**

 **Third, yes, Rythian did just go "I'm done with this for now, I'll deal with it later." which is a statement I can usually get behind.**


	37. Kill the Jasper

Waking up, the memories of yesterday's events came flooding back, figuratively of course, since I didn't actually forget them.

How could I ever forget?

As much as it wasn't particularly bloody, it was more the fact that Aloi didn't allow me to help.

Past the whole "Find the savior" quest, it's still hard to believe and accept that she just let herself die...

As bad as it is, I don't wish that it would be any better. I can deal with it and push forwards, but I don't want to not have to deal with it, as strange as it may be.

Waking up, I wrote a note about being called to Ozpin's office, and opened an **Instant Dungeon** and destroyed pretty much everything on the way to his office with **Mana** **Bolt** being cast in all directions, raw magic tearing the walls down around me constantly. Bursts of color created whenever they struck, training my Illusion skill with different colors and patterns.

Getting in the elevator, which I had left standing, I stopped using **Mana Bolt** and instead used Illusion more, using it to visualize battle plans, but instead of planning the hunters against the Grimm, I was trying to make battle plans with the few Grimm I had defending my territories, against other Grimm.

Reaching the top, I stepped out and broke my **ID** , putting a wall in-front of me the color and shape of the wall behind me, just in case someone else was there, but there wasn't, it was only Ozpin, so I dropped it.

"Ozpin, Aloi died. She went to train in the forest and the humanoid Grimm from the invasion showed up. I got there just in time to kill him again, and then watch her die. I may have not known her much, and I think I can push through and fight on, but I think Janik probably couldn't take it. I'm worried how the team will work with half of us gone.

"Joakim, You should remember that this kind of thing happens. Admittedly, usually a while later in your careers. That said, having a team of two, you and Sun, assuming he doesn't leave as well, would most likely hamper your training, as well as adversely affecting your team in the Vytal Festival or in missions. Normally, slightly late applicants would fill out any odd numbers, and then we would stop accepting them. Hence why your team could apply despite Beacon having full teams, since you were a full team. However, with the loss of one, and possibly two, given the likelihood that Janik leaves, you would be a team with empty spots with no other people to fill them. I would normally reccom-" Ozpin got cut off by the ringing of his desk, and the deployment of a pair of scrolls on stands.

"If you would give me a moment, I need to take these two calls, if you'll wait in the waiting area downstairs." I nodded and headed out, but just after the elevator started, I overheard a name.

"Winter Schnee, may I ask why you are calling at this hour?"

Winter Schnee... she's probably calling something to do with the invasion, but I'm not sure what. I don't think Winter would answer to Ozpin.

* * *

"Welcome back Joakim, while the scenarios leading to this were not the best, thankfully things have worked out. One of those calls were from Winter Schnee, requesting her sister Weiss to accompany her while she is injured. The second call was from the headmaster of Haven academy, following a lead on the whereabouts of one of his students, Sun Wukong. It turns out Sun was already enrolled in Haven, which really just begs the question why he would have faked his transcripts and joined Beacon." Ozpin started.

"I got another brief message from Janik, asking that he be removed from the premises, and he wanted to take time to think about things. In the meantime, I believe it would be best if you were to temporarily join team RWBY while Weiss is with her sister. This should apply to both Jo and Rythian,when he returns, if you were wondering." Ozpin finished. "You can stay in your current room if you wish, but I know Ruby could be quite... Enthusiastic when it comes to team bonding. You should meet up some time through the day during classes and explain the situation. You should contact me if they need proof."

"Okay, I will. I'd probably best get back and prepare for classes. Farewell." I said, before doing my usual **ID** smashing technique to head to the hallway near the first class, switching into my uniform in my inventory.

I still can't wait for an opportunity for Rythian to "Return" to Beacon. This uniform is kind of uncomfortable.

* * *

"And so, that was how I discovered that Goliaths dislike the smell of fresh cheese covered in ground swordfish. Oh, It appears we are near the end of the lesson. I hope you all look forward to tomorrow's lesson. You may all head to lunch.

As Port relayed his story I was making an illusion of the events in the palm of my hand, which was much more interesting than him actually telling it, before cutting it when he stopped, as everyone else woke up.

I shortly caught up to RWBY in the cafeteria.

"Hey, Jo!" Yang yelled out. "Where's your team? I haven't seen any of them all day."

"Well, I'm not sure it's my place to say specifically, but my team kind of fell apart, and it's just me in my own team. But, I did talk to Ozpin, and he decided that I should temporarily be moved to another team, and he reccomended RWBY, although he didn't say why." I replied.

"Well, CRDL is out, for obvious reasons. You would probably destroy them within a day when they tried something. Then it's either us or JNPR. And Weiss just had some family business to get to, so I think that just leaves us." Yang said. "On the bright side, it'll be like a sleepover!"

Oh god.

This is exactly what I was hoping to avoid.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Wizard Of here, and first I want to apologize for the long wait, things have been busy. Remember, to review, favorite, and follow. Favoriting puts the story in your profile, Following sends you an E-Mail alert when the story is updated, so do whichever you prefer.**

 **(Edit. Remember, there is a poll on my profile on Music or non music in the stories so vote. Side note, this chapter appears to have time traveled to two months ago as of updating it, so I'm not sure what's going on.)**


	38. Kill The Jaw

**A/N**

 **I don't usually do author notes at the start, but, if I remember right, the last chapter didn't trigger a notification for me, and it didn't say it was updated, so you may want to check last chapter if you've read it, since has been bugging out sometimes.**

* * *

Thankfully, Ruby had saved me from whatever sleepover activities Yang would think of, or a possibly shopping session, by dragging me to the Forge, all the while telling me things along the lines of "You need a short range weapon, even if you can fight unarmed!" and asking me so many questions in such a short time I couldn't really hear, never-mind respond to. As well as dragging me just as fast, because of her using her semblance, and causing me to panic whenever we reached a door, open or closed, but she managed to open each one, and not crash into, or throw me into, the wall.

Shortly, the doorframe was stone instead of wood covered in wallpaper, and Ruby thankfully started to slow down slightly, before stopping on the spot, causing me to use Ereb to grab my feet using the stone floor, causing my ankles to snap briefly, before stopping without throwing Ruby off balance and throwing us both into the wall across from us, which now I look, while not being dragged at the speed of a car, is home to a fired forge, Dove and Bell still working on Dove's blade.

"So, we're here, any ideas for your weapon?" Ruby said, not noticing the stone from the floor 'melting' over my feet, back to the actual floor, and how anyone other than her would normally have very adverse effects to moving that quickly.

"Well, quite frankly, I was thinking of a short-sword and a sidearm. Besides, I've also been working on some surprises." I say, walking to the furthest forge.

"I'd be happy to help with that! I could have the sword fold up, or the hilt curve, or just make the guard and hilt into the gun..." Ruby said, voice fading into low mumbles, and reaching towards the free tool-set by the forge, I step and grab the tools myself.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'd like to at least try to make them myself, though I would definitely appreciate help with what to do." I said, grabbing the Smith's Hammer.

"Ruby... Where are we getting the metal from?" I said, realizing I had no idea how to start to smith a sword.

"Well, you either melt down something that already exists, but that can lower the quality of the metal, and it will be more brittle after you cool it, ideally, you would use ore, or already pure metal, then you usually fill it into a shape, an ingot to start with would be good, and then heat it and use the hammer to shape it into the right shape..." Ruby started, then noticing my expression, and simplifying. "We need some metal."

"I can get the metal, it's just going to take a while. I guess I'll let you know when I get it." I said. "I might just see if I can get a stock sidearm. I need a ranged option."

Truth is, I didn't, I could just make the wind and air itself attack my opponent, wherever they are. To be more accurate I need a regular ranged option that didn't involve using lost knowledge to harness the power of the world itself.

The reason I volunteered to get the metal, is because I'm sure at some point, with me cracking down on training in Naraka, I was sure to get a skill, or a drop that would involve metal.

"As it is, I actually have a simple longsword. It is a gift to Rythian, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind me using it in the meantime." I finish, Ruby looking sad that she doesn't get to help make a weapon.

"In the meantime though, I think I'm going to go practice with it in one of the arenas."

"Can I watch?" Ruby said.

"Well, what if we fight during the tournament? I have to keep some tricks, especially if you're helping to make my next weapon, what if you sabotage it?"

Ruby, quite frankly, looked like I had just killed all the puppies in the world.

"Why would I do that! Even if you're my opponent, why would I ruin a weapon? A Beautiful weapon! I don't think I could sabotage a weapon even if I tried!"

"It was a joke Ruby, atleast the part about sabotage. I'm sure you would never. I would like to practice on my own though."

"Alright then, call me when you can get the material." She said, before looking to the door, and then looking to the tools on the table, and starting to work on Crescent Rose, seemingly out of habit.

Well, now I guess all there is to train, until something happens, I suppose.

* * *

Locking the door of the training room, and entering a Naraka, with Beowolves and Ursa, which I had unlocked after defeating Bjomolf.

Majorly using my sword, assisted by using the wind to 'blast' myself around, and make the Grimm stumble whenever they're about to attack, or when an Ursa tries to defend, since I can kill the Beowolves anyways.

Seeing a group of Alpha Ursai, I 'blast' myself forwards, blade simply held to the side, Power Strike, and cut through them, before falling to my knees, clutching my jaw in pain.

 **Faction; Creatures Of Grimm**

 **Rank Up!**

 **Elder**

My vision faded, and then all I knew was a 'sense' of myself, from a third person perspective.

My whole being was water, with a small layer of oil. With a gaseous bubble where my mouth would be, swirling and slowly expanding, taking over the water.

I don't know what this was, precisely, but I simply knew that I didn't want the swirling void to take over all I am as a person. But I can't do anything, I try to simply will it to stop, just hoping it would stop, but that made it speed up slightly.

And then I realized what the void was. It was the part of me that was Grimm. Likely growing due to the 'power' I have in the **Creatures of Grimm** faction.

Then, I simply stopped it. I may have shouted, if I could shout in the state I'm in. Not willing it to stop, telling it to stop, with all I have, with all I can, with all I am.

It stopped, and then began to move. Wherever my focus was, it followed. Instead of simply putting it where it was, I put it along my forearms, where I could hide the bone plates easily.

Then I awoke, having controlled the Grimm part of me, I stretch my jaw.

Unclasping my mask, I pull out my shield, using the back of it as a mirror, I see my face, long blonde hair, blue eyes, smooth face, and a slightly confused expression in the eyes, mouth a thin line, and not because of the lack of facial muscles.

The bone mask was gone.

Rolling up my sleeves, leaving my gloves on, revealing bone bracer-like armor.

Thankfully, that will be easier to hide than a jaw... I'll be able to eat at the cafeteria normally now.

 **Due to becoming a powerful Grimm, you have gained the ability; _Morph_.**

 **[Morph (Special) LV- EXP:-]**

 **The ability to morph portions of yourself, primarily used by high-level Grimm. There have been legends of Humans and Faunus who could, but who said those two were mutually exclusive?**

As much as The Gamer tends to have a sense of humor, that's a bit much.

Maybe I should do some research?

* * *

 **A/N**

 **First off, sorry for the long wait, Real Life has been annoying, and full of menial tasks for the last... 5 months.**

 **Well, next up, if things go well, is a chapter of All You Need Is Rose.**

 **As a side note, anyone have a "Humanity" type name that includes Human and Faunus? I don't believe we've heard one in RWBY. "Mankind" kind of works, but doesn't tend to have the same tone. Any ideas? Or did I just miss it somewhere?**


	39. Kill the Spar

In any other world, I would likely be freaking out because of the implications of this. Panic at the thought that I'm now a 'high-level' Grimm. Joy at the fact that I can hide myself better. Confusion on what the third part of my 'spirit' is.  
But I'm just calm.  
Logically, I should be calm. There's no reason to be panicking. It is advantageous to be calm and collected. That's why I'm currently sitting cross-legged, moving the Grimm portion of me around, and thinking to make sure that I'm still me, as strange as that sounds. And came to a few different discoveries and confirmations.  
My mind is still my own. That is probably due to the new **Gamers Mind** skill I got when Aloi died. I hadn't noticed because I was... In shock, I suppose. Apparently the Gamer system needs a main host, and now I am the host.  
Second, there are no downsides to 'morphing' myself. The skill includes controlling it, and harnessing it. I'm not going to suddenly turn into a Grimm entirely. I am in full control of it, in every way. I can create 'claws' by pulling the Grimm smokey void out past my hands. They extended past each finger, Extending straight out an inch, before suddenly 'turning' and extending another inch diagonally, tapering to a sharp point, with the inside-curve sharpened. They can cut a little above a simple civilian knife.  
Third, The Grimm don't feed off of emotions, good or negative, but they can sense it. I could feel someone across beacon being happy. Another depressed. Quite a few people felt calm, so they were probably just content. There was one person, who felt very worried, coming directly towards the door of the training room.  
Opening my eyes and equipping my mask again, I Accelerate and run a few laps of the arena to give the appearance of having been exercising, then slow when I get to the door as it opens, revealing Blake, who was standing, back to the control panel of the door, a black-colored scroll in her hands.

* * *

"You know, I'm mostly wondering how you managed to get a Admin verified scroll." I say, making Blake jump.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean. It's lunch time." She replied, leading the way.

"Your personal scroll is still tucked in your stocking." I shot back, following.

"That's a backup."

"Whenever we walk pass anyone, you subtly move it between us in your hand."

"That's a coincidence."

"You're definitely a ninja."

"What?"

"The middle of chapter 37 of Heartstrike, I believe. It might be chapter 38 though."

"Well, you and I have to read together sometime."

"That could be fun."

"I'm not a ninja."

"Definitely not."

* * *

Lunch was a unique experience, atleast since my time at Beacon. Mostly due to the fact that I can actually take my mask off, and not have to focus on holding an illusion.

Professor Port's class was a unique experience as well. Mostly due to the fact that I could Accelerate, pay attention to see if Port says anything important, create a small whirlwind in the corner of the room, and turn the dark hole under my hands into a sparkle of illusionary tiny fireworks and reenactments of Port's story, if he's at an interesting portion.

In other news, I now know how to make an illusion of a chipmunk eating a papaya on-top of a Beringel. That was kind of interesting.

* * *

Oobleck's class was a unique experience, in the way that I actually experienced it in a reasonable speed. Accelerate is quite useful. Weak pencils, however, are not as useful. Thankfully I can subtly swap them out for new pencils I have in my inventory.

* * *

And now, combat class.  
And now, a stomp.  
Everyone in Beacon knows the random combat class fights aren't random at all. At best, they're randomly picked by Goodwitch herself, which isn't random at all. It tends to be whoever is acting up versus anyone who doesn't have an assigned fight.  
Now why would Ozpin, or Goodwitch for that matter, pick me and Jaune to fight?

"Now students, because of previous fights, this likely seems like a redundant fight, given the skill level of each of the fighters." Glynda started. "This is a small test of a different type of training. Until now, you have always practiced and taught yourself to fight. This match, and if it goes well, the future of this class, will be putting similar-fighting students against each other, and having them learn by fighting someone who fights just like them. Now, Jaune fights with his sword and shield, and Jo does as well. we will provide Jo and Jaune with a sword and shield each, and they will use those instead of their weapons."

On cue, a pair of training bots, which were likely destroyed in the training rooms, carry out a simple steel sword and shield each. Walking down, I see the sword is obviously designed for one-handed use, however the hilt is long enough to be held with two hands. The shield has a band made of the synthetic cloth most hunter clothing is made of in the center, to go around the forearm, and a steel handle where the hand would be. Looking over, I see Jaune picking up the sword and shield, and his shield arm slumping down as he swings a few practice swings, each swing slow and a little longer than he likely intends.  
Picking up the sword in one hand, I turn to face Jaune, standing sideways holding the sword at a diagonal towards Jaune. He looks at his shield arm a moment, and looks at Goodwitch, who slightly nods, before Jaune unhooks his shield and hands it back to the training bot who wheels back to a door in the arena.

After Jaune gets into a rough approximation of my stance, Glynda begins the match.

Walking forward at a steady pace until just out of striking range, Jaune swings from my left.

"We're still too far away." I say, just standing there, as his sword swings past. Swinging down, I pin the sword to the ground and shoulder-charge Jaune back.

"Pay attention to the striking range of your weapon. Moreso when you don't have your usual weapon." I say, stepping into Jaune's guard ready to block his strike, and instead ducking down under it and spinning, slicing Jaune's shins and moving around his side, pommel-striking Jaune in the back.

"Think outside the box, your sword isn't your only weapon. And remember, dodge before parry, parry before block, and block above all else. Unless the enemy is overly strong." Switching to a two handed grip, standing with my feet squared, waiting for Jaune to make a move.

Jaune squares off as well, but stays one handed, holding the sword his other hand resting on the flat of the blade. He walks forwards, before sliding his hand down the sword and moving to a two handed grip, Dashing to my right, swinging the sword with him, missing with the blade, but slamming the pommel into my stomach, nearly making me collapse as he spins around to his right, bringing the sword into my right side, throwing me away to the side. Rolling with the fall, I plant my hand and spin, returning to my first one-handed stance.

"Good job Jaune. Much better. You might want to try two-handing it more." I say, charging forwards.

As I get in range, I feint upwards prompting Jaune to block, then step on his sword, jumping upwards, flipping, and swinging for Jaune's back, but he throws himself forwards, crashing on the ground but dodging my strike. Standing up quickly, he makes a swing for me while I'm landing, which I barely blocked, but still pushes me back a little.

Dashing to the side, I spin my sword around to the back of Jaune's blade, holding my sword in a reverse grip, I pull backwards, using my other hand to grab Jaune's sword, before shoulder-charging Jaune, disarming him and knocking him back slightly, giving me enough time to spin into a ready position, both blades held infront of me, before Glynda called the match.

"That was an impressive match, considering the reputation of the fighters. I believe this was an enlightening spar, and I believe even just this short fight has given Jaune an idea of how to improve his fighting technique, even without his shield. Now, you are all dismissed. Have fun with your long weekend. "

* * *

After changing out of my combat armor, when I left the classroom, I was surprised by a window that appeared in my vision.

 **Your Territory is under attack.  
Enemy forces  
(Spotted.)  
** **[Messenger Nevermore Lvl 1] x1  
(Not spotted.)  
[No Peeking!]**

A Messenger Nevermore?  
Is this from the Game, or is something trying to contact me?  
Either way, I suppose there's only one way to find out. Making sure no one is around, I enter Naraka, and accelerate towards the cliff where my Territory is.

* * *

Nearing the top of the cliff, I switch to my Phantom Nevermore outfit, and dive over the cliff, slowing myself by moving myself in a corkscrew. Landing infront of the stone door I had made, I see my own Grimm lining the clearing. And a small Nevermore, hardly the size of a normal crow, sitting in the middle of the clearing, with an antique looking ornate scroll case tied with a cord around it's body, the case itself made of a deep brown wood, inlaid with small rubies in lines running down the whole case. The ends are capped with what seems to be carved from black stone, that faintly resembles a Beowulf, but is certainly different.

Upon my sudden arrival, the bird simply walks over, waddling towards me awkwardly, trailing the case in the dirt slightly, before coming to a stop just infront of me.  
Slipping the cord over the bird's head, I twist a cap off of the case, and grab the scroll inside.

 _I have learned of you, and depending on your choices from here on out, this could be a blessing or a bad omen.  
It's all up to you.  
First, I had sensed a huge amount of Grimm being killed. Later, the person you know as 'Joakim' was reborn, and told me about you.  
Shortly after, I had sensed some of my children that I did not remember birthing, and then I realized I had no control over them.  
Sending some small nevermore to fly over, I saw the bright white tones of the Grimm which I could not control.  
Whoever is reading this scroll I know is the one in control of these Grimm.  
Because if they aren't I'm sure the white Grimm would have torn them limb from limb as my own children would.  
We're about the same, aren't we?  
Both controlling an otherwise mindless group of creatures who have no choice but to follow our orders.  
Both a step above the pitiful humans and faunus of this world.  
Both alone, ontop of a pillar of power, looming above all else, with no one to really stop us, or to offer a good challenge.  
Both having just learned of someone like them._

 _So what do you say?_  
 _I believe we could make a great team. Terrorizing civilizations. Taking over Remnant. Ruling a world of Grimm. Recreating the whole world in our own image.  
Either way, I'll leave you to your own devices, building up your own army of Grimm. If you don't agree to join me, I would enjoy a bit of a challenge.  
So either way, become powerful, won't you?_

 _Sincerely, well, I'm sure you know who I am by now, don't you?_

* * *

 **A/N  
Oh my god.  
**

 **I LIIIIVE!  
Or, at least, I think I do. I haven't checked in a while. I might have died a while ago.  
Anyhow, things have been busy, and I kind of maybe forgot about this story. Updates will be even more spontaneous than before I think, sadly. I'll try to put some chapters out, at least.**


End file.
